GAME CHANGING SUITCASE
by phoebusss
Summary: Starts at the summer before 3rd year. 1st and 2nd years mostly cannon with flashbacks showing slight divergence. Neutral Petunia/Dudley, bad Vernon, neutral/good Snape; Naruto, One Piece, wiccaliving(site) elements Gryff Harry, smarter/craftier, Grey Harry. Pairings to be decided later. HP, HG, RW, NL, SB, HA, DG, TD.
1. Chapter 1

**GAME CHANGING SUITCASE**

A Harry Potter story. Starts at the summer before 3rd year. 1st and 2nd years mostly canon with flashbacks showing the differences.

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or anything else in this story. Harry Potter and his beautiful world belongs to the amazing J.K. Rowling. I do not make any money off of this story.

"speak"

"_thoughts"_

"spells"

CHAPTER 1

It's been 4 days since Harry Potter returned to #4 Privet Drive for the summer holidays.

"60 days or so till I can returned to Hogwarts and whatever new madness I will have to deal with" said the emerald eyed boy, his tone turning sarcastic towards the middle of his monologue. "I really can't decide which is worst, living here or being targeted, ostracized and more or less forced to face mortal danger; all because of a scar that can't seem to heal even after more than a decade since I got the damn thing".

Now if Harry Potter was being truthful, the last couple of years or at least the last 2 summer holidays (AN: the summer he got the letter and the next one) in #4 Privet Drive hadn't been as bad as the years before. He was finally given a room of his own, even if only to escape a possible "child endangerment" lawsuit and even the beatings had stopped, though granted that was mostly him figuring out he actually did accidental magic (not that he knew that's what it was called back then) and trying to control it or at least not do it in front of his relatives, or anyone else for that matter. Heck last summer his aunt and cousin didn't even called "freak" even once. Not only that but they tried to be somewhat accepting of him and his "freakishness" as his uncle still called it. It was almost enough to make him question whether he slipped into an alternative universe or something. What magic exists why can't multiple universes exist too?

"_Anyway in just a few more hours, uncle -and I'm using the term as loosely as possible- leaves for his week long business trip. Now what kind of weird business trip that is I don't know and frankly don't care. All that's important is that I'll have a week free of the only relative that still looks for an excuse to hit me whenever he can." _thought Harry as he watched his beautiful snow white owl sleep in her perch. Alas Morpheus refused to take him to his realm too. So he watched as the darkness of the night slowly gave way to the first rays of the morning sun; a little while later noises started coming from the master bedroom.

His uncle, in all his "delightfulness" tried to convince aunt Petunia to make him breakfast and probable a little something for the rode, he spectacularly failed if the angry, high-pitched scream was anything to go by. After grumbling his way to the front door and that annoying taxi driver that seemed determined to wake the whole neighborhood with the car's horn, he was off.

It was midday now, just after lunch and Dudley had left for his friends house where they would waste the weekend away playing videogames and whatnot. Harry was on his bed, contemplating how to spend his time since he doesn't have any chores to do, haven't had any for a couple of summers now, when a knock on his bedroom door drew his attention.

"Yes?" he answered not really expecting his aunt to actively seek him out regardless of her more neutral stance towards him.

Petunia enter the room with a suitcase that had seen better days, walking and looking about, her expression a mix of struggling and unwillingness.

"Pott….. Harry" she finally said after sitting in the chair in front of the desk and putting the suitcase on it.

"_OK weirdness alert. Aunt Petunia hasn't called by my name for as long as I can remember" _Harry thought before Petunia continued

"I know I haven't done right by you"

"_This can't be good_"

"It wasn't intentional, it's just….." she paused struggling, looking for the right words

"I lost my family to… to… magic" the last word uttered with such hate that Harry wouldn't be surprised if it had been used during the witch hunts. But he was also perplexed. Why did she say family? Wasn't only her sister, his mother, that died from magic causes?

"I don't" he started only to be caught off

"You see Harry my parents, your grandparents and my youngest sister"

"_Wait… what"_

"were killed by it" she finished.

"I don't understand" Harry said waiting, hoping his aunt would elaborate so he could begin to try and make sense of what she was talking about.

"I had 2 younger sisters Harry. Your mother, Lily, was the youngest sister." she continued "Rose, the middle sister, was killed along with my father when he was taking her to the hospital, she had a fever that just wouldn't go down. While I stayed with my mother who was 8 months pregnant with Lily." tears started falling from her eyes, while Harry listened, transfixed.

"You see my father was a well mannered man and he loved his family. So when a policeman showed up in our house say my father suddenly went racing down busy sidewalks hitting everything he could, with my sister on the back seat, I naturally didn't believe a word of it. Even with eye witnesses, photographs even recordings I knew something was wrong. But I had no way of finding out. Then came the fact that my very pregnant mother and I found ourselves with no way of providing for ourselves. Sure father left us with a small inheritance but with the baby on the way we knew it wouldn't last. And it didn't, 4 months after Lily was born there wasn't any of the inheritance left; my mother and I found jobs as waitresses in the same restaurant, shuffling our time-tables so that one of us was always with Lily. It was hard going but we made it work and then 11 years later came the letter." Petunia took a deep breath and continued "Magic. It took me a while but I finally connected the dots. I had heard Lily speaking with that boy and found out that there was a war going on in the magical side and how it was spreading out to our side. Disappearances, unexplainable deaths the police was stamped. I guess that's when dislike started. Lily and I were slowly growing further apart but it was 4 years later when I came home one day after my shift to my mother's defiled corpse and above our house was some kind of symbol in floating in the air; a skull with a snake coming out of it's mouth. The police or whatever they have didn't do anything other than remove that symbol. Probably the onl reason I remember it is because they knew one of them was living in the house. Their blatant disregard for a life made me mad yes, but I didn't hold it against Lily; what finally put an end to any kind of relationship I might have had with Lily was that when she returned home it was only to get some stuff she had left, tell me neither of us were safe while she lived with me and that I should forget her." Petunia stopped, took another deep breath and continued her tale.

"Like that she left; I was already heartbroken, I had already lost my father, my sister, I was still grieving from our mother's passing and then my sister, the only other person who could understand what I was going through just up and left; disappeared like I wasn't worth the effort of at least explaining what was happening, why we were targeted, anything. And that was the last I heard or saw of your mother until 5 days after you were born."


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or anything else in this story. Harry Potter and his beautiful world belongs to the amazing J.K. Rowling. I do not make any money off of this story.

"speak"

"_thoughts"_

"spells"

"_And that was the last I heard or saw of your mother until 5 days after you were born."_

CHAPTER 2

Harry was frozen still on his bed. Whatever he expected to hear from his aunt this wasn't it. He was suddenly given information about his maternal grandparents who he never knew of, never even thought to ask about. It took him some time to come to terms with a side of his mother he didn't know about. One that was marginally different from what anyone has ever told him about. Then again it's not like he was told much about either of his parent, just the same things over and over again.

"You're just like your father, except your eyes; their Lily's"

"Lily was the brightest witch of her age."

"Your mother was a prodigy at Charms"

After repeatedly being told those things again and again, Harry had built up this infallible image of his mother. Heck now that he thought about it he did the same for his father too. How much did he really know about his parents; looking back he realized it wasn't much, certainly nothing concrete. It made him wonder; how did they meet? did they have friends? If so where were they? Had they all been killed in the war with Voldemort? That last one seemed pretty farfetched but still why hadn't they come forward to meet him? If not during his earlier years in the Dursley house then why not in the last 2 years that he had reentered the magical world. He had all these questions now and zero answers. Taking a calm breath he ended up asking the question that was the furthest on his mind.

"Why are you telling me this now, aunt Petunia?"

Petunia looked at him for what felt like hours but was probably only a few seconds.

"Because of what she told me the last day I saw her." She said; after taking yet another deep breath to steady herself she continued.

"She had been trying to reach me for a while but I was doing my best to ignore her, alas I had actually forgotten that Lily never took no for an answer." Petunia smiled fondly, looking back at what Harry could only assume were happy memories.

"In the end I succumbed and met her, though I had my own reasons for doing so. So we met, we caught up and reminisced about happier times. Then she told me you were being targeted by an incredibly dangerous individual, and that she had began making preparations should anything happened to her and her husband. That those preparations included protections for my family as well. She didn't go into specifics, though I probably wouldn't have understood it even if she did" Petunia laughed.

"Any way" she continued "she told me that should anything happen to them I would be the first person in the list of people they wanted to take care of you. When I ask why she said that by accepting you into my home both you and me and my family would be protected from anything magical that wished us harm for as long as you called my home your home or until your 17th birthday; whichever came first. You know pretty much what happened after that." She finished. But before I could asked a question she continued.

"Well almost… which brings us to the reason I had wanted to meet her. You see my Dudley had already been born for a few months but I could already tell he was like Lily; after everything I had gone through and everything she had just told about the state of the world she lived in I didn't want that to be the future for my son. So I asked no I begged her if there was a way remove my Dudley's magic or at least bind or hide it so he remained hidden from the dangers of her world." Petunia took a deep breath bracing herself while Harry's mind was in chaos, trying to comprehend and come to terms with what he was hearing.

"After a few moments she said she would look into it; at which point we said our farewells and left our separate ways. It was 2 months later that I finally heard from her again." Petunia continued seemingly not wanting to stop until she finished.

"She contacted me, telling to take Dudley and go to their home. When I arrived she sat me down and ask me if I still wanted to go through with what I had asked her; realizing this was my chance to save my son from the horrors of their world I was undeterred no matter how she tried to change my mind. So she took us to the basement telling me along the way that what we were about to do was highly illegal and that if it was ever found that death would the lesser punishment we should expect."

"After she led us to the basement I that there were carvings spread throughout it following her directions went towards the center of the basement where 2 circles were, sitting down in one of the them and in the other was you sleeping peacefully away." I gasped at that but aunt Petunia continued on.

"I'm not sure what happened after that, just that I woke up the next day in a bed with my son next to me. Then when I was about to leave Lily handed me this suitcase and told me to keep it safe and give it to you during your summer before your 3rd year in that school of yours. Which brings to now." She finished looking as if a weight had been lifted from her shoulders, not that Harry could blame her.

"So…" Harry drawled out "this suitcase is like, some kind of gift from my mother, who had told you when to give it to me" deciding to shelf everything else for now and focus on the one link he had to his mother.

"Yes, I don't know what's inside but she was adamant you had it now."

"OK…." Harry said looking at the suitcase with a mix of longing and apprehension.

"I guess I'll leave you to it then." Petunia said sitting up and walking towards the door.

"Oh… Uh… Thank you, aunt Petunia." Harry called after her, with more sincerity than he ever thought possible. Petunia nodded her head in acknowledgment before walking out.

Harry just stood there unsure what to do.

"Screw it" he muttered "I'll just deal with it Gryffindor style."

Harry went about trying to open the suitcase but it was locked shut. Angry with his own lack of progress and whatever his mother did to have that suitcase close shut for well over a decade, he threw it off the desk cutting his finger along the way.

"Damn it" he swore trying to put the suitcase away, only for his cut finger to brush it; suddenly there was a flash of light and the suitcase glowed.

"Huh" he muttered "Ok that happened." He decided to give it another shot and to his surprise the suitcase easily opened.

"Right then, let's what's worth all this trouble.


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or anything else in this story. Harry Potter and his beautiful world belongs to the amazing J.K. Rowling. I do not make any money off of this story.

"speak"

"_thoughts"_

"spells"

"_Right then, let's see what's worth all this trouble."_

CHAPTER 3

Harry was expecting a few things after all his mother had expressly wanted him to have this suitcase at around this time of his life. He expected some clothes with sentimental value,

maybe something with his parents initials, maybe if his was really lucky a letter or two from them, expressing their own words and feelings, not what others thought or saw them as but what they, Lily and James Potter, wanted to pass on to their son. He certainly got all that that was just the tip of the iceberg; the space inside the suitcase had been enlarged, now Harry had heard of enlargement enchantments to increase the space within an object hell practically every shop in Diagon Alley had those but this, this was something else. The entire #4 Privet Drive –garden and all- could fit inside this unassuming suitcase several times over. Harry assumed it was somewhere between 4 or 5 times larger. But the size wasn't all that there was to it, no not even close. Walking in the suitcase he came upon a large room bigger than the Gryffindor common room. In said common room there were a number of doors spread throughout the room. Walking through the first door to his right he came upon a large bedroom with a large double bed, with a walk in closet filled with clothes in pristine condition, if only a bit bigger than his size, he had after all been underfed most of his life; there was also a desk with a comfortable chair in this room and a bathroom not unlike the prefects bathroom in Hogwarts, at list from what he heard, with a swimming pool like bathtub, a shower that wouldn't be out of place in a 5-star hotel, a toilet and a basin made of black marble. Walking back to the common room he noticed some things that had escaped his notice before, namely 2 letters sitting in the foremost table as walked in the suitcase, hopeful he find letters from his parents he ran over seeing the 3 letters he picked up one that had elegant handwriting on it; carefully opening it, his eyes watered as he read through his mothers letter:

_Dear Harry,_

_My beloved son if you are reading this then that means I'm dead. I am so sorry that you had to grow up without us, while I hope Tunia has treated you as her own, I am enough of a realist to think it unlikely and I cannot apologize enough for placing you with her; unfortunately I had no other way to ensure your safety from those of our world that would wish harm. I am unsure of what she told you or what she had understood of what was going on at the time so let me give the cliff notes: there was a war between wizards/witches our side was losing, badly, Voldemort was continuous gaining ground, your father and I were part of a group that was fighting him and his Death Eaters, we knew there was a spy in the group but not who; many believed it was one of your fathers friends and schoolmates; they were always getting in trouble pranking people left and right, sometimes the pranks were more bullying than anything though and I really disliked those but I digress; so 4 friends, Marauders they called themselves. Most people thought the traitor was Remus based on nothing but the fact that he's a werewolf BAH. Remus is one of the kindest soul I ever met there is no way he's the spy but none of that matters right now. The point is we were losing the war, then suddenly Voldemort started targeting us, your father and I, almost explicitly, we couldn't understand why, until Severus my childhood friend came to us one night crying his heart out, it was the first time I ever saw him cry as a matter of fact; when he calmed down enough to talk he told why we were being hunted like that. Apparently a prophecy was given and because of that Voldemort full focus was on us... on you my son. We forgave Severus from going to his then Master and telling him the small part of the prophecy he heard. Really what choice did he have; and we were so tired of being angry at the unfairness of it all that we simply could bother; what was done was done. Afterwards we went to Dumbledore and demanded to hear the whole prophecy for it was he the prophecy was made to; you will find it in one of the memories we left for you. Please don't blame Severus Harry it was not his fault, regardless of how he sees it. Now onto happier subjects, your father and I have left memories of most of our lives for you. The memories can be viewed from a 3__rd__ person view through a pensieve which you can find in the behind 3__rd__ door to your left as you enter. We have left you all our research to the various subjects we had going at the time along with the entire combined library of the Potter and Ravenclaw families. Apparently the Potters were descendants of the Peverells who were descendants of Slytherin (you better not be prejudiced against them young man!) and apparently the Evans were descendants of Ravenclaw (go figure right?) _

_Now to open the Slytherin and Ravenclaw vaults at Gringotts you'll need to undergo an inheritance test. As for the Potter vault you'll have to wait till your 17__th__ birthday I'm afraid, as for the Peverell vault I'll leave it to your father to explain (have to leave something for him to write too, you know)._

_Now a last bit of advice before I unfortunately finish the letter; whether you wish to continue our projects or sale them (yes you can do that) or to better prepare for a future where Voldemort comes after you yet again (I've already figured out a way to diminish his power if not outright kill him; it's in the memories) I believe Ancient Runes and Arithmancy are a must. At the very least I know I wouldn't have been able to come up with the things I did without those subjects. Whatever you chose to do, always know; I love my beautiful baby_

_Love _

_Mom_

Harry had to wipe his eyes several times over throughout reading the letter. He ended up reading 3 more times before he could put it back to the desk, his emotions running wild not knowing what to focus on. Taking several deep breaths he reached over to his father's letter knowing he wouldn't be able to calm down before he read it too.


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or anything else in this story. Harry Potter and his beautiful world belongs to the amazing J.K. Rowling. I do not make any money off of this story.

"speak"

"_thoughts"_

"spells"

_Taking several deep breaths he reached over to his father's letter knowing he wouldn't be able to calm down before he read it too._

CHAPTER 4

"Dear Harry

Hello son, if you are reading this then I haven't had the privilege of seeing you grow up nor know the various rules you've undoubtedly broken in your time at Hogwarts or the stories behind them which sucks as we could have compared notes. I know just from watching you explore around the house that you definitely have the potential to be a great prankster; almost as good as me actually! But more importantly I hope you have found friends, good friends, to share everything with, happiness, excitement, jokes, pain, sadness, everything. For me it was a group of 4, including me, we called ourselves Marauders, we each had our own individual nicknames, I was prongs, your godfather Sirius was Padfoot, Remus was Moony and Peter was Wormtail, based on our animagus forms. You'll see them in the memories I left you, along with a potion to reveal your oun animagus form, after you know that you just to practice the change. I suggest you study the characteristics of your animal, not just appearance wise but also its behavior and patterns, it helps with the visualization needed to trigger the change back and forth. We managed to finish our animagus training by the end of our 5th year at Hogwarts (see if you can beat that HAH!). Hopefully Sirius has been there for you, even if you had to live with Lily's sister I know he wouldn't have left you alone there. If not then something is keeping him from doing so.

Now I'm sure Lily told you about Snape; I can't really blame him, heck if it wasn't Lily that Voldemort was coming after then he probably wouldn't have switched side and be a double agent for Dumbledore and us to spy on Voldemort. As for saving me it was kind of a package deal with Lily, you see most of my time in Hogwarts I was playing pranks and having fun with the rest of the Marauders; but I was downright a bully when it came to Snape. He was Lily's childhood friend and even back then I was infatuated with her, I was jealous of their relationship so I was bullying him out of some weird reasoning that by doing so Lily would stop spending time with him and start spend time with me, instead_; the cooler one, _I used to think, boy was I stupid back then. Alas we can't change the past all we can do is learn from so as to not repeat them. Now onto happier things, I won't repeat your mother's letter (she'll say I copied hers if I do) so I'll give you an overview of what you can find in this suitcase:

**_** A common room

**_ **One master bedroom with its own bathroom.

**_** Two guest bedrooms with their own bathrooms.

**_** A pensieve with many of memories from both Lily and I.

**_** Our will (you have to take it to Gringotts to have it authenticate and then execute it).

**_** Your mother's and my research, in several subjects along with half-completed potions, runes and enchantments based on said research.

**_** The Marauder's map (it's a map of Hogwarts the 4 of us made that shows not only all the secret passages we found during our years there but it also tracks people! (That's right you can now know where in Hogwarts everyone is!) it also gives the various passwords for the common rooms and the prefects bathroom along their location. I also left instructions on how to add to it. By the way this is actually a copy; we lost the original in our 7th year, it's probably collecting dust in Filch's office.

**_** A family line tree from the Slytherin to Peverell to Potter.

**_ **A family line tree from Ravenclaw to Evans.

**_ **The entire Potter/Ravenclaw library along with our schoolbooks from all 7 years as well as the books we studied from for our masteries.

**_ **Slytherin's short sword and dagger (careful with those they are goblinmade and extremely dangerous and valuable)

**_ **Ravenclaw's ritual dagger (she was a known ritual master. These days rituals are considered Dark but that's not true; yes there are Dark rituals out there but there are also good and neutral ones too. To simply call something or someone Dark just because it's a ritual or in Slytherin –subtle right! - is beyond shortsighted)

**_** Our wands (in case you need one that isn't being tracked by the ministry – insert devious smirk- hehehe)

**_** A training area to practice your spells

**_** Potions lab and ingredients (if you're into that sort of thing like your mother)

**_** A ritual room (warded to keep the rest of the rooms safe just in case; if you decide to use a ritual from the library or from anywhere else please be careful son, the slightest mistake can have the worst consequences, all the rituals in the library work exactly as they are intended, I've double checked them) also your mother and I have already prepared a ritual for you, one we ourselves had. Even though the effects differ from person to person it will definitely help you. All you have to do is enter the circle in the middle of the room and power up the stone that's inside the circle with your magic until it starts flashing with light, the rest will be done on their own time.

Now in case you're wondering why I mentioned the name Peverell in our family tree; I have left a copy of "The Tales of Beetle the Bard" it's a children's book please read the "Tale of the Three Brothers" within it. Now I don't know how much of the story is true and how much is fiction but the brothers in the story are three Peverell brothers as they're known. The oldest, Antioch Peverell, the middle brother Cadmus Peverell and the youngest Ignotus Peverell. We are descendants of the third brother. The three brothers were known master enchanters and warders, having created most of the enchantments and wards we use today.

All in all go nuts Harry, we collected here everything we could to help prepare you for the fight you will be forced into, if for no other reason than that Voldemort believes the prophecy to be absolute, instead of it being a self-fulfilling prophecy – basically it only came true because someone heard it and acted on it.

So this is it I guess, it is my sincerest wish that you live a long, normal (as close it as possible at least) life. Do not mourn for Harry, for we are with you, always.

Love,

Dad

Harry couldn't take it anymore, he broke down, crying his heart out. There was a flutter in the wind and Hedwig was next to him playbiting him with her beak, trying to comfort him, he fell asleep after a while, on the armchair he was sitting.

By the time Harry woke up it was already nearing the time dinner, he stood up feeling oddly well rested, considering the uncomfortable position he slept in. After taking another look around, his eyes resting a little more in the two letters his parents left him, he walked out of the suit case with Hedwig perch on his shoulder, leaving the house altogether after convincing Hedwig he was alright and she could go back to her perch. She did not like that, if the bite she gave his arm was any indication. Now alone he sat down in the swings in the neighborhood's park, processing everything he learned.

"_So a freaking prophecy is the reason my parents are gone… great… and I had actually picked the elective. At least I know what to do with that now, hopefully McGonagall won't mind too much if I asked her to changes courses, it has been long since school let out after all" _Harry thought. "_Still… I should probably go through all that stuff the left me. The potions will probably go to Snape hopefully as a peace offering. That animagus thing… it's probably what McGonagall had done back in 1__st__ year, turning into a cat. I'm definitely learning that; though I wonder what else is there, the way he was going on dad pretty much expected me to have at least one ritual, I'll have to see what those are about."_

Some time and a whole lot of thinking later, trying to come up with a plan going forward, he stood up ready to return. "_I most definitely missed dinner, so I'll just make a sandwich; good thing Vernon isn't here, or I'd have to wait till morning to eat something" _the emerald eyed young wizard thought.

Picture:

Slytherin's short sword as Sting from Lord of the Rings/Hobbit

Slytherin's dagger as a dragonbone dagger from Skyrim

Ravenclaw's ritual dagger as Keening also from Skyrim


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or anything else in this story. Harry Potter and his beautiful world belongs to the amazing J.K. Rowling. I do not make any money off of this story.

"speak"

"_thoughts_"

"spells"

Chapter 5

Harry emerged from the pencieve looking thoughtful. He had just finished going through all the memories his parents left him. It took a few days but he had done it. It was the 1st thing he decided to do after all those bombshells that were dropped on him merely 4 days after his return to #4 Privet Drive. Well he also sent the letter to McGonagall asking to change his electives; there response was brief but positive. He was mow taking _Care of Magical Creatures (CoMC), Ancient Runes (AR) and Arithmancy (Am). _Hermione will be so pleased when she finds out. Other than that took a look through the library and was stunned to see it was almost the same size as the Hogwarts library, though with better a filing system. It even had Dark section, kind of like the restricted section but only with warnings to act as a deterrent. Apparently his parents trusted him enough not to do anything stupid and so far he hasn't. So, now that he had a better understanding of the magical world in general and his situation specifically he was left to wonder about 3 people, it would have been 4, the remaining Marauders and his godmother, Alice Longbottom but based on the fact that Neville was raised by his grandmother he guessed his godmother didn't have a happy ending. Which left the remaining Marauders, his godfather Sirius Black, the person his parents trusted to be the secret-keeper Peter Pettigrew and everyone's favorite werewolf Remus Lupin. Now considering the whole secret-keeper thing didn't really panned out, Pettigrew was probably dead. But what about Sirius and Remus? Where have they been most of his life?

With no way to answer those questions he turned his attention to the next matter of business. He was originally planning to deal with their will first, before undergoing that ritual his parents had prepared for him. Now he wasn't so certain. Sure he knew what that ritual did now, it was actually two rituals condensed into one. A transmigration ritual which basically searched your blood for dormant abilities like parseltongue and brought them to the surface, effectively awakening them. It was thanks to this ritual that his father gained his parseltongue and probably how Harry could use it too, he had inherited from his father. His mother's experience with this ritual was subtler; it was hard to detected in the beginning, but as time passed it was becoming more and more prominent, she was slowly but surely becoming smarter, her progress in Arithmancy and Ancient Runes was also improving in an almost impossible rate. Harry guessed that her transmigration ritual somehow gave her passive access to Rowena Ravenclaw's knowledge; how such a thing was possible he had no idea, then again it could just be his imagination.

"_Yeah imagination let's go with that." _he thought not really believing it, but will to let himself be convinced so as otherwise the implications were staggering. But now he couldn't wait to see what kind of long forgotten ability he could unlock. Not to mention the other ritual that came with it. It was a releasing ritual; meant to release the binding his parents put on his magic. Why do so you ask? Well because of the not so Light or Grey for that matter, ritual his mother used on his aunt and cousin. To actually rip someone's magic from them and transfer it to another. Harry wouldn't have believed such a thing possible if it weren't for his mother's memories. And not to mention the decade needed for the person with the foreign magic inside him to successfully integrate it to his own. When he found out what his mother had done he was disgusted with her actions, but the more he thought about it the more he understood them. Petunia didn't want her own magic she had suppressed it her whole life, giving birth to Dudley merely brought her magic back to the surface. As for Dudley… yes it sucked he was never given a choice but Petunia was the one who made that choice for him, not his mother and certainly not Harry himself. Petunia didn't want her own magic and she practically stole that decision from her son; while at that point Lily was desperately looking for something anything that would increase Harry's chances against the worst Dark Lord in the last few centuries. A part of Harry couldn't help but wondered how things would be if he and his cousin both had magic, both went to Hogwarts or god forbid simply be friends, not the passing acquaintances they have been for the last 2 years.

His mind made up he walk into the ritual room, ready to undergo the rituals that might very well be the deciding factor in his fight, for really what else could you call it, against the man no the monster that has destroyed so many families especially his own.

"Ugh" muttered the emerald eyed boy "What's going on? Where am I?" opening his eyes only to close them instantly. While he waited a bit for his eyes to readjust he used the rest of his senses to try and figure out… well anything really. So he was laying down on the flour, the there were noises coming from somewhere near him, though he couldn't categorize them and there wasn't much to smell. None of that gave him an inkling as to how he end on the floor; in the end he decided to backtrack the last things he remembered.

"_Alright let's take this slowly, watching the last of the memories my parents left me; check. Deciding to worry about the will later; check. Deciding to undergo the double ritual; check. Actually undergoing the double ritual; …check?"_ Harry thought opening his eyes on to reveal to him that his wasn't in the ritual room anymore. Heck he wasn't even in #4 Privet Drive let alone his suitcase. Looking around he saw he was in the middle of an entryway-like room with voices that he originally thought were merely noises coming from up ahead. Steeling that Gryffindor courage he was known for he walked to the door behind which the voices were coming from, as he got closer he could make out sentences.

"…stand, why can't I do it? How does it actually work? Are you hiding something to keep our power to yourself?" a voice belonging to a young girl sounded.

Harry could practically see the face of the girl's pout. He tried to knock on the door only for his hand to go through it, meanwhile another voice came from inside the room.

"You know I wouldn't do that to you little Pearl." A muscular voice sounded though it was filled with mirth.

"MY NAME IS MARGERY, ALISTAIR!" the younger female voice screamed.

"_Well clearly that's not the first time this argument came around"_ Harry thought, having recovered from his shock at the ability to pass through walls, it wasn't like had never witnessed it before even though it was an ability mostly associated with ghosts. Harry decided to just walk through the door to see the now named people, Alistair and Margery, the voices belonged to. Alistair was a tall, well built man, the kind you would expect to don't an armor and defend his precious people. What made Harry pause though was the fact that the man actually was wearing armor.

"_What kind of impossibility have I gotten myself into this time?" _Harry grumbled in his mind looking towards the girl this time, who looked to be around his age. The girl was wearing a deep blue dress seemingly made of velvet with gold trimmings.

"_Nice for a something from the middle ages" _Harry thought sarcastically. "_Wait a minute…. A guy dress like a knight and a girl in a dress from the middle ages? I hate my life!" _he thought exasperatedly "_This had better not be some kind of one way travel"_ knowing his luck it may very well be.

Harry turned his attention to the two people with him in the room, hoping to make some sense of this.

"… I'm already 14! I'll be formally recognized as an adult in a few months! I can let people know I can't even use our family's magic!" Margery cried. For a moment the expression on Alistair's face darkened but it passed before Margery could see it; not Harry though he saw plan as day from what he learned from his father's memories the girl was likely to be married off to whoever offered their family more money or had better connections, poor girl obviously didn't know anything about it.

"Nah, impossible you're just a ten years old still." Alistair joked only to be assaulted be the most powerful weapon known to mankind; the dreaded puppy dog look.

"Hah…" he sighed "fine come on let us take it from the beginning."

Margery quickly adopted a smug look before changing into one of focus.

"So "continued Alistair "our family magic is called …?" his voice dying out, obviously waiting for the girl to speak up.

"Oh, come on not that beginning!" came the expected cry from Margery.

"…Fine, our family magic is called metamorphosis and it allows us to change our appearance at will." Margery answered.

Harry gasped at this. _"Seriously?! The transmigration ritual is awakening my metamorphmagus ability?"_ he thought, already knowing it to be a distinct possibility given that his paternal grandmother was a Black, who were the only known family (at least in Great Britain) to possess the ability, though according to his father's memories the first one in generations was actually Sirius's some times removed niece Naia-something or other her name sounded greek to Harry.

Now getting giddy with the possibilities becoming a metamorphmagus would give him, Harry started really paying attention to the lessons.

"Remember in order to access it you have to focus on our family's motto ''_toujours pur'', always pure_. It means to always be pure to yourself, know yourself and accept yourself the way you are. This is important, in order to protect yourself from our metamorphosis ability." Alistair stressed.

"I don't understand. Why would I need to protect myself from my own magic?" Margery questioned and Harry couldn't help from agreeing, he too had that very same question after the shock of how much a family motto's meaning could be misinterpret.

"Well think of it this way our family magic allows to be anything" he started, and Harry couldn't but feel Alistair was alluding to something more that what Harry knew about the metamorphmagus ability.

"which is both wonderful and useful but at the same time it's also frightening because we could easily loose ourselves in it. Never returning to our original forms. For example you could focus on that boy you've been eyeing when you thought nobody was watching and suddenly your metamorphosis ability activates and you're stuck in the body of that boy with no way turn back." He finished, ignoring his little sister's blush.

For his part Harry was going over everything Alistair said. He still couldn't quite put his finger on what Alistair alluded to. But he understood the easily enough. It was basically a warning not to lose yourself in your own power. A valid lesson and not just for metamorphmagi. A look towards the girl showed that while she didn't completely understand, she got the general idea.

"Well then are you ready to try again?" Alistair asked gaining both of their attentions and an energetic nod from Margery.

"Ok step towards the mirror." Alistair said with Margery complying and Harry copying her movements.

"Good now I want you to focus on my hair, only on my hair, their color and their shape."

Margery did as told but soon broke to tears."It's not working!" she cried out as she dropped to the floor "I try and I try but it never works! I'll never be able to do it! Then I'll be thrown out of the family!" she continued to cry as Alistair hugged her close.

"It's alright Margery, just let it all out, that's it let it all out" whispered Alistair in her ear.

After a while Margery calmed down enough to stop crying; meanwhile Harry had been trying to follow Alistair directions on how to change his hair with no progress whatsoever.

"Close your eyes Margery" Alistair began again after he ended the hug, not moving from the ground next to her.

"The first thing you have to do is make yourself completely calm. Close your eyes and breathe…. Just breathe…" after Alistair was sure she was listening to him, he continued "then you have to focus…focus to the center of your body until you start to feel a pull… then you reach in and bring it out …"

Harry too was following his directions. He felt a pull inside him, no not exactly a pull more like a warmth he reached in and tried to pull it out but the warmth pulled away, breaking him out of his meditation.

"I almost had it!" Margery cried out excitedly "but then it pulled away" she finished looking about as dejected as Harry felt, having been through the same thing.

"You pulled, didn't you?" asked a smug looking Alistair; Harry's ears perked up at that.

"Well yeah how else was I supposed to bring it out?" asked an offended Margery.

"You're not supposed to pull, you're supposed to will it to follow your intent or I guess guide or goad it to do what you want it to do." Anwered Alistair.

Harry sat, transfixed on what Alistair was saying, this was becoming less and less about metamorphmagus and more and more about willingly, knowingly, consciously using your magic to do as you wished. If it was as simple –well not really simple but doable- then why was there such a small amount of people capable of wandless magic and even then the control and power behind it wasn't all that much, excluding Dumbledore's.

Maybe this particular teaching was lost in time. Regardless even if he failed to become metamorphmagus –he didn't even know what would happen if he was unable to unlock it while this vision or whatever it was played out- he still gained something, something that he could work on latter at his leisure. So with a smile on his face went about following Alistair's latest advice, feeling for that warmth he felt before finding it much easier and faster this time. Almost as if the first contact he had with it had established some sort of connection. This time the warmth was accepting enough of his wish to comply with his desire. Harry felt the warmth, his magic, he mentally corrected himself travel from the center of his being towards his hair, just before his magic reach his hair his mind flashed to his mother's fiery red hair.

He opened his eyes to find himself in front of one of the many mirrors the room had, his reflection staring back at him with long flowing, fiery red hair; exactly like his mother's. A shit-eating grin slowly spreading in his face.

"_This is going to be fun" _he thought.


	6. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or anything else in this story. Harry Potter and his beautiful world belongs to the amazing J.K. Rowling. I do not make any money off of this story.

"speak"

"_thoughts_"

"spells"

"_This is going to be fun" _he thought.

Chapter 6

After trying out a few more stuff and getting used to his new ability, Harry noticed the lack of noise, looking around to see that he was alone in the room. Wondering where Alistair and Margery went, he dropped his current metamorphosis; eyes of a hawk, he wanted to see if he could also gained a hawks sight. The result was actually something in the middle, his eyesight did improve but nowhere near the level of a hawk's eyes prowess.

"Oh well can't win them all I guess" he said out loud, just then he noticed a mirror disappearing.

"Ok so it's a fair bet that I'll return to the ritual room when everything in this room fades. Oh well lets not waste this chance."

He had gone comfortable enough with changing his appearance that he wanted to try something else based on Alistair teachings. He closed his eyes and reached within finding his magic, the process coming to him naturally now, only instead of changing his appearance he focused on the feeling of the wind on his face and around him pulling it from memory easily after all those hours on his broom, suddenly though not really unexpectedly, he felt himself rise from the ground.

He laughed joyously barely comprehending any deeper meaning from his action. The most jarring thought on his mind was simple.

"I can fly!"

Just then the last mirror vanished and he felt himself falling, falling for much longer than he should have, then again considering there was no longer a floor beneath him that wasn't all that surprising.

"Oh hell" he said, before darkness claimed him.

He regain consciousness again but this time he didn't immediately open his eyes, the lesson from the last he did so was still fresh on his mind. Still he noticed things, things he shouldn't have noticed if he was back at the ritual room. Things like feeling cool breeze blowing on his face, smelling something weirdly invigorating in the wind, no not something in the wind but the wind itself was invigorating.

"What now?" he questioned only to be incredibly surprised when a voice actually answered him.

"That's an excellent question young man." Harry jumped up eyes open, ignoring the momentary pain, looking around for the voice that answer him when nobody should have been able to, assuming he was still in the transmigration ritual's space.

He found the man the voice came from standing a few feet on his left, looking at him with a very recognizable set of emerald eyes.

"Wha… who are you?" Harry asked trembling, not looking in the man's, if he was even a man, eyes feeling the power he radiated by simply being.

"Oho usually when someone is asking another's name they introduce themselves first." the reproachful answer.

Harry blanched "M-my name is Har-" he started saying only to be interrupted by a third, ethereal voice that sounded like music to Harry's ears.

"Stop right there!" the voice called out.

"Oh my, and to what do I owe this intervention of yours, Tina? You know it's bad taste to crush in my place while I'm entertaining guests" The man said focusing on his latest guest.

"Don't give me that Maggie" the man growled at the name but the woman continued as if she hadn't heard him "you know how much power a name has, especially for someone like us. Asking his name is equivalent to asking for his soul."

"True, true but even if he didn't know that and by the look on his face he definitely didn't, that still didn't mean I would anything with his soul, not only is he mortal, my blood runs through his veins, granted it was from another, simpler time before all these rules, but it runs just the same."

"My blood also runs through his veins Maggie –cue growl- and unlike you I have already stacked my claim over him."

Harry just listened, not really understanding what was going on, not really wanting to either. But that last part prompted him to ask, to clarify what this gorgeous woman in front of him meant.

"Um e-excuse me, but what did you mean by staking your claim?" he Gryffindored his way through, questioning a being of power beyond his comprehension.

The two individuals turned to look at him, successfully making him think they had forgotten about him; they hadn't, in fact even if they weren't looking at him or acknowledged him in more than their initial sentences, their attention was never left him. It had been awhile since a mortal had made their way to this place, and even longer still, one that had a connection to both of them. After a brief mutual glance towards each other that went unnoticed by Harry the man –male-entity-whatever spoke.

"That is a bit complicated young man and also forbidden to talk to anyone that isn't like us." He gesture between the woman –female- entity- again whatever.

"That doesn't sound ominous at all." Came Harry's sarcastic response before he could stop it. Wide eyed he chanced a pick at them, his eyes not having left the ground since he was told to introduce himself, only to find the female appearing entity visibly holding in her laughter and the male ones face looking a mix of chuckling and snapping at him; Harry wholeheartedly prayed he'd choose the first option.

"Fine, I guess I can't really fault you for that." the male entity said. Causing Harry to thank his lucky star that for once it decided to shine.

"With that said however" began the female one "you've put us both in a pretty bad spot. I mean on one hand neither one of us should be entertaining one such as you on the other you have the qualifications to allow us to do so even if it is heavily frowned upon."

A chuckle came from the male one "That's putting it mildly." he said.

"But you're here now and that provides an opportunity. An extremely rare one." continued the female, ignoring the male. "Tell do you know what we are to you?" she asked Harry.

"Some weird ass super powerful ancestors?" _"Why mouth, why?"_ once again he put his foot in his mouth.

This time they did laugh, both of them.

"Well he's not wrong." came the male's response

"No, no he's not" the female said still chuckling. "This is going to be fun." She continued.

"Indeed, but first we best make sure we aren't interrupted. **Blood of my blood do you wish to apprenticeship under me of your own free will?**" before Harry had time think, never mind answer, the female spoke.

"OI, I already told his one of mine! **Blood of my blood do you wish to apprenticeship under me of your own free will?**" she finished speaking with the same exact, rehearsed even, words as the male. Both were looking at Harry now with an intensity he wouldn't have minded if he didn't experienced it.

"Um… yes?"

They continued to stare, if anything the intensity of their stare increasing.

"…to both of you?" Harry continued. There was a flash of light as he answered. When it passed both entities were looking between themselves and Harry.

"Well that just happened." said the female.

"Uh huh" answered the male.

.

.

.

.

.

"Um, excuse me but what exactly happened?" asked Harry.

"Ooh nothing much you just freely accepted both of our offers to personally train you." said the male "and considering that the last guy I trained took him 3 years to get the basics and another century to master, at least for his capabilities, everything…" he let hang in the air.

"Oh, that's nothing, my last students gave up after a decade or so, I decided to give them some toys representing the lesson I tried to impart on them, one for each of an aspect of my power they had an inkling for" came the female's voice, yet strangely for Harry, she sounded pretty far away.

"W-wait so I'm stuck here for a minimum of a decade? I can't stay that long I have people waiting for my back home!" Harry yelled.

"Quite the slow one isn't he?" came the male response

"Indeed this will probably take a while." Answered the female

"W-wai-" Harry was caught off be the male.

"Listen kid you already accepted there are no take-backs."

"Besides it's not as bad as you think. We can make it so that every day out there where you came from is ten years here."

Harry visibly relaxed with that and with said relaxation came a multitude of questions.

"Hold on a second; who are you two? Where am I? I thought all this happened in my head because of the transmigration ritual! Is any of this real?"

"Of course this is all in your head kiddo!" beamed the female "but why would that mean it's not really?"


	7. Chapter 7

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or anything else in this story. Harry Potter and his beautiful world belongs to the amazing J.K. Rowling. I do not make any money off of this story.

"speak"

"_thoughts_"

"spells"

"_Of course this is all in your head kiddo!" beamed the female "but why would that mean it's not real?"_

CHAPTER 7

Harry breathed, finally calm enough to take stock of the situation he found himself in, 2 years of life-threatening events gave him a certain perspective. So it only took him a few hours to actually calm down. During which the 2 entities had sat down and were playing some kind of cards game.

"Ok, let's see here" Harry said talking to himself, only to be interrupted by the male entity.

"You know talking to yourself is the first sign of going crazy right?"

"Nonsense you can talk to yourself all you want without being insane" the female one said; Harry was about to sigh in relief when she continued "it's when you're being answered to, that's the first sign you're going crazy" she finished.

"_If I'm sane by the time their done with me it will be a miracle" _Harry thought only for the female to answer him

"Bah, what's life without a little insanity?"

"_Aaand they can read my mind, terrific" _just as Harry was coming to terms with the fact that even his thoughts were subject to the two individuals scrutiny, the male one spoke up.

"Oh, lighten up you'll get used it."

Harry sighed, again, he was doing so more and more lately, though who could blame him, considering everything. So he made himself focus on what he knew of his situation.

-First he successfully unlocked his metamorphmagus ability.

-Second, because apparently it was too good to just gain something without something crazy happening during or immediately after, if you name was Harry Potter, he somehow entered a place where time can be manipulated by 2 being of unknown origin

"You know you can ask us right?" came the male's voice

"Though I doubt we're allowed to answer most of his questions." said the female

and just about as close to omnipotent

"Quite the flatterer isn't he? You better watch out for Tina kid, she goes weak in the knees for the smallest flattery"

"I do not!"

as you can get

with questionable personalities

"Now that was just rude"

"That's it kid, play hard to get it only makes the whole thing more fun to watch"

-Third he had the chance to potentially learn things either lost to time or simply things unknown to the mortal world "damn it now I'm starting to sound like them"

"What's wrong with that, kid"?

"I'm pretty sure he thinks we're weird Maggie"

"WILL YOU STOP CALLING ME THAT!"

which was good considering the whole prophecy crap

"I win!"

"NOOO! I wanted to go first!"

"Hahaha! Your loss Tina"

-Four even if they can manipulate time in this place, it still wasn't a good idea to spent to much time here considering the whole 1day=10years it still meant if he stayed here for two decades he'd wake up after two days, that can't be good for his body

"Speaking of not being good for your body-"

"You're not going to make some kind of commend about me molesting him aren't you?"

"Actually I was going to say that the whole stealing a couple of people 'magic', as they call, for himself and then binding it to his own wasn't good for his body either. But now that you mention it…"

"MAGGIE!"

"Ok fine,…spoilsport"

"Wait what? What do you mean? How is that affecting my body?"

"Oh look he finally acknowledges us" Maggie said.

"Well you did make an offhanded comment about him, mortals are vainly petty like that" said Tina.

"Please forgive your loyal and ignorant subject… by showing your magnanimity and educate him, your …omnipotence"

"Hmph, as if such blatant-" Maggie was caught off by Tina

"Off course I'll tell you! After all it's only fitting for those of our standing to share our knowledge with those of a lesser one. You see what you call-"

"Tina! That is my lesson to teach!" Maggie finally managed to finish a sentence

"Tsk, so close" muttered Harry before speaking up "but seriously though I'm still concerned about my body, staying inactive that long is good for my continued health."

"You don't have to worry about that. Currently your body is in stasis. Has been since the ritual initiated, it doesn't matter if you awaken right now or 1000 years later. Your body will have remained in the same state as when the ritual started. Can't really say the same for your mind though." Maggie explained.

"What's wrong with my mind?" Harry asked

"Nothing right now but think about it; when you return to your body, your mental age would be disproportional to you physical one. An incredibly aged, and hopefully wiser – though I'd prefer craftier-, mind with the body of a 12-13 year old. It will take some time for you to get used it.'' was Maggie's answer.

"That does sound troublesome, though I think I've had worse."

"_Well, someone obviously hasn't hit puberty yet". _thought Maggie with a smile before looking over to see Tina_ "can't wait to see how this will play out." _

"Um, so what should I call you two? Can I use the names you're using for each other?" asked Harry.

"Yes/NO!" came the simultaneous answer.

"Uh, so which is it?"

Tina and Maggie looked at each other for a couple of seconds before looking back to him.

Sighing, Maggie answered him "Yes you can call us by our pet names. Even though I don't like mine it's the best for now."

"Brilliant! So, you two said something about teaching me?"

"That's right. You'll first get a handle on my lessons and then you'll have a chance to brave Tina's."

"I still say you cheated your way to go first Maggie." Tina grumbled

"You just can't get over the fact that I beat you."

"Hmph, I'll be over there watching fail to instruct again"

"I don't want to hear that from you! Your last students left without even the basics! All 3 of them!"

Tina answer by stomping her way towards some trees a ways away

"Right then, now that the annoyance left we should begin" start Maggie sitting down on the grass, with Harry following him down.

"Tell me kid, what comes to your mind when you think about the elements?"

"The elements? What like fire and water?" asked Harry.

"Those yes, but also earth and air" _"and the fifth one too but we'll leave that one for last."_

"Well, I'm not too sure. I can't say ever specifically thought about them, they were always sort of just there." said Harry

"Hmm, then if I were to ask you with which of these elements you identify the most with or feel most comfortable around, which one would it be?"

Thinking about it Harry realized there was only one of them that had a great deal more significance for him.

"Air" Harry answered "I have always loved the feeling of the wind on my face and the rush it gave me when I was flying around in my broom."

"_Air huh, makes sense considering his life till now. Even if it's for only one aspect of it." _

"Uh yes Air." Maggie said, before beginning his lecture "The ever-present Element that is all around us, yet impossible to see. Indeed, it is only visible through the interactions it has with the other Elements. An Element of movement, it is not fixed to the ground, but instead free to travel the world, which I'm guessing is what draws you to it. It can cause rapid change, such as shifts in the wind's direction and fluctuations in temperature. Air is essential to life because it contains oxygen, but also because it scatters seeds across the ground so that new plant life can take root in the Earth. And like all elements it has its destructive attributes. Attributes that come in the form of storms—especially tornadoes—as well as dangerously cold or hot temperatures. With sufficient energy, Air can move Water and extinguish Fire. Air can both move Earth—in the form of blowing soil—and be obstructed by it, such as when wind is blocked by the shelter of a cave. In the form of a soft breeze, however, Air can be experienced as a gentle, reassuring whisper. With but a few deep breaths it can clear the mind, reinvigorating it, allowing one to increase his focus; it is also the primary way we use to communicate. Our words travel through the air to reach each other. It can also be used as a way to predict events in the near future."

"Wow I never thought about it like that." said Harry. He didn't particularly liked the last part, the prophecy still fresh in his mind.

"Yes well, that's why you're here." drawled Maggie "but that's enough theory and philosophy for now. It's time to practice." He continued. His tone changing to an almost excited, and dared Harry think, pain-promising one.

**Two months later **

(give or take; time doesn't really have much meaning when one doesn't get tired or hungry, not to mention the sun never set.)

A swooshing sound filled the air as a blur zipped around trailing patterns only it could see, until a voice called out.

"Alright, that's enough come down here."

The blur took a nose dive, divining straight down towards the ground, mere centimeters from the ground the blur turned in a 90 degree angle until it was parallel to the ground, flying straight to the voice's owner only stopping when it was an arms distance away.

"Honestly I've never seen anyone take to flying as well as you kid" said Maggie. For his part Harry - because really who else could it be? – smiled brightly.

"This is awesome!" he exclaimed, still not touching down. "Who knew there would be such a difference between flying on a broomstick and flying on your own power" Harry mused.

"Oh, just about every person I ever taught." drawled Maggie "and whoever they managed to successful teach, I guess" not feeling his apprentice's excitement over the latest ability Air manipulation granted him. Oh he was excited alright; the kid was a natural when it came to manipulating the element of Air. Maggie had actually gone out of his way to have Harry to focus and learn, at least on a basic level, all the other abilities Air manipulation granted, leaving flying for last. His gut feeling told him the kid wouldn't be able to focus on anything else if he learn how to dance in the sky, because really, Harry had turned flying to an art, before learning everything else.

"And with that your training in Air manipulation ends." Maggie said. "feel free to train, and not just your flying, your heart out when you return to the mortal world."

"Can't we go at it a little longer?" Harry pouted, trying, and failing to pull off a puppy dog eye look.

"Don't pout it doesn't look good on you."

"Tsk." understanding it wouldn't work he stopped and, processing Maggie's words, looked and asked

"Then does that mean we'll move on to another element?" he asked hopefully.

"Yes it's time to begin training for another element." said Maggie "do you have a specific element in mind?"

Looking back in the beginning Harry wasn't all that excited in the beginning, not really seeing what was so amazing about controlling the elements and their properties. All that changed when he started the training to control Air's properties. Now his mind was clear, focused unlike the scattered chaotic mess it was the last 10~ some years. Hell he'd even gotten a bit smarter and he had a sneaking suspicion his intellect would increase a fair bit more. As far as the communicating and divination properties went though he didn't have much to show for. Heck he had _nothing _to show for the divination part. He did have a few things to show for the attributes of Air, he could create a miniature tornado around him to protect against incoming attacks, even managed to make a passive air barrier around him that not only gave him a general idea of his surroundings but could also acted as a first line of defense against sneak attacks and he could direct and manipulate the air towards the undersize of his feet making for an effective and unexpected maneuver if he was otherwise unable to move or dodge. He still had trouble holding that tornado ball in his hand; he had the rotation and power down but he just couldn't figure out how to keep it contained. The fact that Maggie told him it was the ultimate Air manipulation technique and learning it would make the rest of Air's destructive attributes a great deal easier to learn while also being pretty powerful attack on its own didn't help either.

{AN. Yes I'm giving him the rasengan. It will be an Air manipulation ability not a pure magic one. Not sure what that means for the rasenshuriken; but I'll have plenty of time to decide on it. He'll already be pretty strong by the time he finishes his training in this place so maybe I won't have a reason to give him the rasenshuriken}

All in all the Air manipulation training was great, sure had a lot more stuff to learn but nothing he couldn't do on his own time. So maybe it was a good time to start training in another element. And he knew which one to ask for.

"Yes" Harry said coming back to the present "I'd like to learn manipulate the Fire element."

"_Should have seen this coming" _Maggie thought.

"Hmm, the Fire element can be quite volatile without the proper control and focus to both yourself and those around you. You have the focus but lack the control. How about we go with Water first, that will give the control necessary to successfully train Fire afterwards, hm?"

"If you had already decided on Water why did you ask me which one I wanted to continue with?" Harry asked curiously.

"Because your answer would not only show me your current state of mind but also which element you would most likely have the second best affinity with. The better the affinity the less time you need to train each individual property. Of course that is not absolute. Some properties are easier to learn than others regardless of the element they belong to. A property of the element you have the least affinity with you could learn easier than a property of the element you have the greatest affinity with. It depends on the individual and their experiences." explained Maggie.

"I see, ok on to Water then." Harry said

"Right, Water." Maggie began. "It is often thought of as the most essential of the Elements for sustaining life. That however is not true. The elements are all equally essential for sustaining life. There must always be a balance between them. Humans, of course, cannot live without it, and the same is true of animals and plant life. Before the advent of roads, water provided humans with the most efficient means of travel. The Water Element is a shape-shifting element, moving easily throughout the world by following the path of least resistance. It can exist as a solid in the form of ice, or as a gas in the form of tiny particles in the air. It has cleansing, purifying, healing, nourishing and as I stated previously, shape-shifting qualities.

Yet it can be a threat to life when it manifests as stormy seas, riptides, and even severe rainstorms. The Water Element is powerful when interacting with the other Elements, as it can extinguish Fire, flood the Earth, and combine with Air to corrode and dissolve metals. Generally speaking, however, Water is one of the more soothing Elements when it comes to the human spirit."


	8. Chapter 8

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or anything else in this story. Harry Potter and his beautiful world belongs to the amazing J.K. Rowling. I do not make any money off of this story.

"speak"

"_thoughts_"

"spells"

_Generally speaking, however, Water is one of the more soothing Elements when it comes to the human spirit."_

CHAPTER 8

It has been 2 years since then. Learning to manipulate Water and comprehend its properties was NOT easy. Hell Harry was still having problems with most of its properties. He had a VERY rough idea about the cleansing and purifying –apparently they were both similar and different at the same time, go figure- and as for the healing and nourishing properties he hadn't the foggiest. His only saving grace was the shape-shifting part, that one he had more or less already mastered. Apparently being a metamorphmagus helped, makes one wonder how much that sliver of good luck would cost one Harry Potter, he had even managed to surprise Maggie when he somehow used both the shape-shifting property, trying to change the ice in his hand to water, and his metamorphmagus ability; the end result? An ice Harry; that had no problem walking around, interacting with his surroundings like normal, well almost normal; he could only use his Water manipulation and Water properties. The look on Maggie's face was priceless. For about two seconds, then it turned scary.

Other than that Tina had apparently gotten bored wherever she had run off to when Harry began his elemental training and returned just as puberty started to hit him full on something more than 1 years ago, talk about suspicious timing. So yeah the last couple of years were not fun. Still aren't, considering Tina – a raven haired, green eyed (apparently she had changed her eyes' color from the blue eyes she had before she left, claiming she didn't want to feel left out) beauty with curves adult performers would be jealous of- had been teasing him almost relentlessly.

Harry had even made a lake to swim in, in order to become more attuned with Water, which actually helped, a bit. So here he was, drifting in his manmade lake, trying and failing, to gain some kind of insight when he heard a splashing sound coming from nearby.

"Damn, here she comes again" he grumbled, having already gotten used to the fact that whether he thought about it or said it it would amount to the same think considering their mind reading abilities.

"Harrry, you almost sound as if you want me to leave" Tina pouted. "You know, if you want to leave you'll have to say to my face."

"Yeah I'm not falling for that one again"

"Suit yourself, I'll be here, drifting away, letting

the water clean away my aches"

"Hmph, what aches, you've been lazing… around…" _"Off course! How could I have been so stupid?!"_ Harry broke off as the break through that's been eluding him for so long finally clicked. He jumped up, hugging Tina and pecking her cheek with a chaste kiss.

"Thanks Tina! I owe you one!"

Harry exclaimed leaving the lake to go meditate on the clue he finally got before the inspiration left him. Tina was paralyzed in the lake her mind trying to figure out how a mortal of all things not only caught her off guard like that but also stole a kiss from her, even if it was only in the cheek. As for Harry, it was several hours later that he realized what he had done.

_4~ years later_

A now 18~ year old Harry Potter was sitting near the lake he had made years ago, looking back at the last few years he spend in this place, that he still doesn't really now where it is by the way.

It took him a long while but he had finally done it. He had mastered Water manipulation and comprehended the shape-shifting, cleansing, purifying and even healing properties of Water. Sure he still had problems with the nourishing part but hey nobody's perfect. He had also had a good grasp of a couple of Water's threatening aspects riptides, rainstorms; he was even close to getting feel for tsunamis, though that one is still a long way off. All in all, he had gained a whole lot. But it was time to move on to the next element now.

Other significant events the last 4~ years include some very fun times with Tina, following his actions at the lake and some prompting from her. Though for some reason Tina was insistent that he should experience his first time in both mind and body.

Elemental training is exciting, exhilarating but also hard and demanding -making for a very accomplished feeling whenever he completed his training- but most worrisome of all time-consuming. There was no way he could finish the basics of three more elements (Maggie had already told him there was a fifth element but refused to explain further) and whatever Tina had in store for him before Hogwarts started again. He couldn't decide what to give up on. Hogwarts and his friends, in order to be better prepared for the inevitable fight or through caution to the wind and risk everything from a couple of years with his friends. So preoccupied he was that it had showed on both his training and his free time.

"I wondered what mom and dad would have done" he mused.

"About what?" questioned Tina.

"What are you grumbling for now?" Maggie's voice followed.

Sighing at the interruption, having long since gotten used to it Harry decided to voice –they probably already knew thanks to the whole mind reading thing they had going for them- his troubles.

"Time, I'm grumbling about time. There is no way I can finish everything you're willing to teach me before summer vacation ends and I have to go back to school. Or rather decide whether to forgo school in favor of this training."

Maggie and Tina look at each other before Tina broke into a smile.

"Hah! Pay up Maggie! Told you he'd figured that out!"

"Tsk, fine" Maggie grumbled "a bet's a bet a guess"

Harry sighed, again, he was getting a little too used to that, he realized.

"Of course you made a bet about it. Why would I have expected anything else."

"Oh lighten up Harry" came Tina's voice having switch to calling him by his name at some point in the last 4~ years. "We had actually known that all along" she explained. "Which is why Maggie pushes you so much to get the basics down. I too will focus on getting the basics through your head."

Harry was frozen still, processing what she told him. Here he was, once again saved, for lack of a better word, by someone's good grace without the slightest clue as to how he could possibly pay them back. And that's without even considering the fact that they went out of their way to help him in the first place; he was no longer under the illusion that he accidentally appeared in this place. No, they had brought him here, offered him knowledge and abilities either lost in time or never before known, at least as far as the general mortal population was aware.

Needing to express his gratitude, only for words to fail him, Harry reached out bringing the both of them in for a bear hug, having finally acquired the physique necessary for that, with a little help from his metamorphosis ability. For their part, the duo hugged him back, having long since come to see him as a younger brother, in addition to a protégé, for Maggie and for Tina a mix of friend, possible boyfriend, student and family –to say Tina was confused about her feelings for Harry was like saying the desert had sand. True but not enough to adequately measure it.

The trio just stayed like that for a while, before Maggie decided it was time to break it up

"Alright, enough, are you going to hug us for the remaining time you have here or are going to make something it."

Harry laughted carefreely, the weight he was feeling gone, before answering, the conviction evident in his eyes.

"Don't worry Maggie I'll make sure I'll be worth your time."

"You know how that sounded right?…." Tina said, before whispering in Harry's ear.

"Aaand that's done it for the mood." came the voice of a slightly blushing Harry.

He stood up ready for the next part of his training. Maggie joined him and after walking a bit away they two sat back down, Harry focusing and Maggie entering lecture mode.

"Right, then Fire. It is perhaps the most mesmerizing of the Elements, and yet it's the only one that can't be touched without harm to the body. While not technically necessary for human survival, the Fire Element is certainly integral to a healthy and comfortable existence. For several millennia, Fire has made it possible for mortals to cook nutritious meals, work and play after sunset, and warm themselves in colder climates. Fire is the Element of transformation, and is associated with illumination, health, strength, creativity and regeneration. Always in motion, even when rooted in one spot, it is the most active and animated of the Elements.

Of course, this same power is also dangerous and deadly when unchecked, which is why this Element commands such respect from those who seek to use it. Fire can be extinguished by any of the other Elements, but it is also the only Element that must have another substance to consume in order to maintain its existence."

4~ years later

A 22 year old, emerald eyed man with the very definition of a messy mop of black hair opened his eyes. Wondering why he was feeling so refreshed when you couldn't actually get tired in this place; sure you could take a break and sleep but only if you wanted, there was no exhaustion to necessitate sleep. So why was he feeling so refreshed? The answer lies in the body in his side hugging like a pillow.

"_That explains it" _thought Harry as he watched Tina sleep. This wasn't their first time sleeping together, not even the second or third, but like those times he watched her sleep afterwards, drinking in the sight of perfection in front of him.

"You know it's creepy to watch someone sleep right?" Tina questioned softly, not really willing to give up her body pillow.

Harry smiled but didn't answer, preferring instead to nibble her ear eliciting a moan from her.

"Hey, now none of that" Tina said forcing herself to pull away from the deliciousness that has been acting as her body pillow for a while now. She had wanted to keep them from going all the way wanting him to have the experience with his body as much as his mind, there were some things that couldn't be accurately experienced in this place, especially if said individual hadn't experienced them before. But her resolve had been chipped away with every time she was subjected to his constantly-evolving, increasingly more experient, technique; until she couldn't deny her desire any longer. She truly pitied whichever girl was going to be the first to snog, or more, with him by the time he left this place.

Grudgingly pulling away, she decided to remind him of the other member of their little group.

"By the way didn't Maggie said he wanted to see your progress?

"Oh, crap! I'm late!" harry cried out, trying his hardest to keep the memory of how Maggie had reacted when he was late on their decided time because of…stuff.

Harry flew to the place they had decided would serve for his test to determine whether his should keep working on his Fire or move on to Earth. Maggie was already sitting in the grass, with a faraway look.

"_Crap he's pissed"_

"Um-"

"So your resolve to training your hardest, to push yourself the furthest you can in the limited amount of time you had here died down about the same time you'd gotten a taste of Tina, did it?" Maggie asked in a deceptively calm voice.

"No-"

"Oh? So you're telling me that you did not in fact forget a previous appointment because you where otherwise engaged but because you what? You simply forgot? Did not believe it fare a significant amount of importance and therefore could be easily rescheduled to a time of your own choosing?"

"…ry" Harry muttered, feeling genuinely bad for messing up.

"Hmm? Did you say something?"

"I'm sorry my actions made you questioned my determination in regards to my training and the trust you showed me when you took me on as an apprentice."

"Hmm, very well. I accept your apology, I trust this won't happen again?" said Maggie

"No it won't happen again" verified Harry.

"Good! Now let us see what you've got!"

"W-what?" Harry was surprised by the 180 degree change in Maggie's attitude.

"Oh come on Harry" Maggie exclaimed "Did you really think I would be mad about something like this?

"B-but"

"I only made a scene because I wanted to see if you could own up to your mistakes. Not every person you'll meet will be as easygoing as me. I wanted you to have an idea of what to expect."

"But the previous time this happened" Harry started only to be cut off again.

"I reacted the way I did because I had to sell it for the next time it happened" shrugged Maggie

Harry's eyebrow was twitching by the time Maggie finished explaining. Sure he appreciated the lesson but there had to be a better way for Maggie to go about doing that.

"Aaanywho ready for the test?" asked Maggie innocently.

"You better believe it!" shouted Harry, itching for some payback.

Now if Harry was calm he would have realized why Maggie did all he did. One of the Fire elements unique properties is the ability to increase its intensity by using "burning up", for lack of a better phrase, something else. What it meant for Harry right now is that by channel his anger he would be able to increase the intensity of his Fire; it was a lesson Maggie purposely didn't give him, wanting harry to figure it out on his own.

"_Oh, well he's sufficiently pissed off now, lets what he can do" _thought Maggie, with a smile on his face.


	9. Chapter 9

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or anything else in this story. Harry Potter and his beautiful world belongs to the amazing J.K. Rowling. I do not make any money off of this story.

"speak"

"_thoughts_"

"spells"

"_Oh, well he's sufficiently pissed off now, lets what he can do" _thought Maggie, with a smile on his face.

CHAPTER 9

Harry opened his eyes, finally regain consciousness; his Fire test was a great deal different from his first two. While all had a certain amount of fighting involved, his Air test was mostly focused on his flying capabilities with the barrier and clearing his mind close seconds and his Water one was mostly about his shape-shifting with a smaller focus on his purifying abilities. Not this last one though, this one was almost completely about combat. Pushing his mind's body, his battle awareness, increased regeneration, timing and creativity to the limit and then some.

(AN: regeneration like in teen wolf with wolverine-level regeneration being the max possible)

Still he couldn't deny the fact that he reveled in the fight, –for him anyway, for Maggie it wasn't even a warm-up- in the chance to prove himself, the abilities he'd gained; and if he was lucky, perhaps a praise or two from his precious teachers.

"I guess that'll have to do. I would have liked for you to train Fire more but I guess there isn't enough time." came Maggie's evaluation

"_Guess I'll have to wait for praise from someone other than this slave driver." _Harry thought

"I heard that!" Maggie answered

"Of course you did." Harry retorted "So does this mean we can get to Earth now?" he asked.

"Yeah we wasted enough time as it is and Earth will most likely be the 2nd hardest element for you"

"Really? How can you tell? And if it's the 2nd then what's the 1st?" Harry fired of not really giving Maggie the chance to answer.

"Take a breathe will you?" Maggie sighed "The the reason I think Earth will be your 2nd hardest element to train in is because of your affinity with Air. Being something of opposite elements, the better your affinity with Wind is the worse your affinity with Earth will be and vice versa. At least that's the generally accepted rule, same with Water and Fire. And considering it only took you 2 months to get the basics for Air…."

Harry groaned, realizing where Maggie was going with this. In an attempt to save himself from what was coming, even if only for a few seconds, he focused on and rephrased his last question.

"But then what about the hardest element to train in? If it's generally accepted that affinity determines how fast someone comprehends an element then the element, which is the opposite from the one with the highest affinity of a person will therefore have the lowest affinity and as such the longest –and probably hardest- time training. Why is Earth supposed to be my 2nd hardest?" Harry asked

"The hardest element to train in is always the 5th element." Maggie answered already expecting Harry to re-ask the question.

"You mean the one you won't tell what it is?" Harry asked wanting to clarify.

"Yes, that's the one."

"Oookey…" Harry started, taking a big breath and standing up and stretching before continuing

"So you think we could start Earth in a bit? I'd like to…take a breather I guess?" he finished turning it into a question in the end, trying to phrase it properly.

"I'm not sure spending time with Tina constitutes as a breather, more of a-" Maggie only to be interrupted by Harry

"That's not what I was going for!" Sighing Harry continued "I was just thinking of experimenting with my metamorphosis ability."

Thinking back on the time he spend training his metamorphmagus skill, both in the first plane and this one. He had eventually asked Maggie the difference between metamorphosis and metamorphmagus, only to found out the skill he gained from the transmigration ritual was the metamorphosis not the metamorphmagus. Interesting thing about the metamorphmagus ability, he had found out a while back, it originated from what was called metamorphosis because it allowed one the capable to change into anything; actually anything, another's face or body, new features, a dragon, a cat, a box you name it even something like a swarm of bees (that was not fun when he tried it). Metamorphosis was in a sense the primogenitor of transfiguration, it was through the study and experimentation of this ability that transfiguration came to be; granted there were differences, some fundamental laws between the two were almost complete opposites; one was a hereditary skill, the other could be learned by any witch or wizard. Metamorphosis could turn someone into say a dragon for example, but that would not give said person a dragons magical resistance or dragon's breath. Meanwhile there was no spell in existence that could transfigure someone into a dragon, because in order for the spell to work the target would also have to gain a dragon's resistance to magic which would by its nature resist the magic changing it. It made for quite the infuriatingly endless cycle. Another thing he learned about transfiguration that always bothered him was that every spell is an everlasting one. Meaning transfiguration changed a target's fundamental properties down to the last molecule and therefore a beetle that was transfigured into a button would remain a button regardless of how much time passes. He still had problems understanding how the whole animate-to-inanimate, and it's reverse, transfiguration worked and when he brought it up all he got for an answer was that Maggie will explain later. Anyway back to the metamorphosis ability and how it turned to the metamorphmagus one, it was actually quite simple; centuries of inbreeding. Trying to keep the ability in the family had the adverse effect of not only devolving the ability to the point it could only be used to manipulate one's physique and appearance and no longer capable of taking any form they chose. To add insult to injury, further inbreeding caused the ability itself to become dormant. Apparently it was no coincidence that Sirius's niece, a half-blood, from a pureblood (where the dormant ability was inherited) and a muggleborn (a new spark as it were), managed to awoken the ability.

All in all being taught by a couple of ageless beings that have been around for goodness knows how long, gave Harry a different, if not somewhat unique perspective. Not to mention access to unbiased –for the most part- history and its far-reaching effects, even to this day.

To think that the whole pureblood superiority nonsense came about because the families with abilities like parseltongue or metamorphmagus wanted to keep their abilities within the family or in rare occasions trade them with other families possessing abilities of their own. Keeping their family magic, possibly gaining a new one, along with new connections, alliances and – what Harry suspected was the deciding factor- more money. All for the price of a woman's future, not of the main branch of the family no less, it was a small one, if at all, apparently, as the men in the families, rarely if ever, joined their wife's family.

Maggie considered Harry's request for some time off and considering Harry was actually a genius when it came to Elemental manipulation, just about everyone else he trained needed around 2-3 times the amount of time Harry did –and don't even get him started on the kid's Wind affinity, two months for the basics was unheard of- he didn't actually have a problem with it.

"_But that's no reason to easily agree, not to mention if he's actually planning to mess around with his metamorphosis it will only help him with the graduation exam I have planned for him. And it wouldn't be a bad idea to get him more intuned with his cunning side."_ he thought.

"Oh, you think you can take it easy just because you've learned the basics of most of the elements? Knowing the last two are the hardest? Knowing you haven't even started Tina's training?" Maggie questioned with a stern face, letting off minute amounts of his power, not enough for Harry to pick up but enough for him to unconsciously feel cornered. "Did you even wondered why Tina didn't put up much of a fight when we decided who's going to start training you, we both know she's prone to throwing fits over smaller things. It was because she knew her training would be much more time consuming. It's a fair bet to say that training the 4 Elements of Air, Water, Fire and Earth will take you less time than the couple of things she has to teach you." he finished, wondering how Harry would respond.

Harry, who had gulped a few times throughout that little speech, racked his brain for a way to get his, according to himself, much needed break.

"Well there is such a thing as too much training. Studies show that too much training, be it physical or mental, can have adverse effects. One needs to know when to take a break to relax, so they can continue afterwards with renewed vigor, determination, a clearer head and a better focus on the task at hand." Harry said the first thing that came to his mind, hoping it will be enough. If nothing else he was thankful he had learned to think on his feet over the years, both around his uncle and at Hogwarts.

"Isn't that where your Wind training comes in? Through it you can always keep a clear head and focus on the task at hand as you called it." Maggie pressed.

"Well yes, but some things only time can heal, or in this case mend, such as mental fatigue." Harry answered immediately, inwardly surprised at the speed of coming up with a good, if a bit philosophical, follow up.

"Hmm" Maggie, who had kept his stern face throughout the debate, for lack of a better world, and had been lessening the minute amount of power he had been releasing until it had completely stopped emitting, was smirk inside.

"_Heh, not bad kid"_ he thought before speaking up "I suppose you have a point. Still is your idea of taking a break training something else?" he questioned

"Weeell" Harry began, stretching the word to gain some time to properly phrase his thoughts "it's more along the lines of take a break, train in metamorphosis a little, especially in the coming in touch with my magic bit, which feels awesome be the way, take a break, revise the previous Elements, take a break and then start Earth training."

"Is 'take a break' some kind of code for keeping Tina company?" Maggie asked, only somewhat, genuinely curious.

"What?! No!" Harry exclaimed.

"Huh, well I'm sure you'll find time for her too. Fine you can have your break, if that's what you want to call it." Maggie said, finally getting "convinced" by Harry.


	10. Chapter 10

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or anything else in this story. Harry Potter and his beautiful world belongs to the amazing J.K. Rowling. I do not make any money off of this story.

111111111111111111111111111111111111

"speak"

"_thoughts_"

"spells"

1111111111111111111111111111111111111

"_Fine you can have your break, if that's what you want to call it." Maggie said, finally getting "convinced" by Harry._

CHAPTER 10

Harry's break lasted a full year. But it was a productive year, he had progressed further in both his already trained Elements and his metamorphosis. Specifically, with his metamorphosis: reaching and guiding his magic had become second nature to him, he had focused solely on this part after Tina had hinted it would help him in the long run. Harry had also tried his hand at wandless magic, focusing on the spells he'd learned during the 2 years he'd been at Hogwarts rather than the ones in his parents' memories. It went well enough but both Tina and Maggie told him that while it would be easier learning wandless magic in this place, his results when using it back in the mortal world would vary. So he had spent a lot of time getting familiar with the feeling wandless magic gave him in order to have an easier time training in it latter. As for his progress with the Elements it was like this:

**Air**: He's was flying faster now; far faster than his Nimbus 2000 could ever hope to be. Both his passive air barrier and his active tornado wall had gotten much stronger, his air barrier could now block against most charms, jinxes and curses; they would either stop cold a few inches away from him or he could use his hands and legs to redirect them away –Harry couldn't wait to see the looks on everyone's faces when he'll eventually do that that last bit- though he wasn't able to get a better grip of his surroundings. His tornado wall that encompassed him was also capable of redirecting spells away from him. The difference being, according to Tina, that while his air barrier could stand up to most normal attacks be they spells or the effects of spells, it had trouble with the majority of dark spells. His tornado wall on the other hand could now block and redirect pretty much anything less than the Unforgivables and the likes of fiendfyre. Another problem with his wall was that he couldn't control where the redirected attack would go, making it perfect in either a battle-royal or a one-on-many type of fight, not so much if there are comrades around him. He could also control the direction of the air beneath his feet and therefore he no longer had to gamble with which direction he would maneuver to. Harry was also able to figure out a way to increase his overall running speed by lessening the resistant of air around him; he was even able to combine the last two Air manipulation abilities to gain another, movement technique as Maggie called them, for a short burst of speed moving a few feet away almost faster than the human eye could follow. All that progress happened just by finally figuring out how to contain a tornado on his hand in the form of a ball, though he still had trouble actually throwing it.

**Water**: he had focused mainly in the purifying and healing aspects finally learning how to purify cursed objects and heal another's wounds and ailments, though he didn't yet have much luck with healing wounds or ailments caused by dark magic.

**Fire**: After an accidental –Harry was having serious doubts whether it actually was so- discovery, he realized that he could channel his feelings to increase the potency of the skills granted to him by his Fire Element in particular he was able to increase the rate of his regeneration to the point where wounds and broken bones were visibly healed in minutes he was even able to re-grow lost limbs though it took a lot out of him, not to mention the pain involved with losing a limb never mind re-growing it. His situational awareness, timing and creativity also increased. He was no longer only focusing on what was going on in front of him to the expend of everything else, now he could take in the entire, immediate, situation and make plans for it. It was during this time that he began to realize that the Elements were interconnected with each other. He started trying to combine properties from different Elements. After a number of failed attempts he successfully managed reach a state where time appeared to slow down, allowing him the window to better analyze the situation. Of course it wasn't time that had slowed down but rather it was his perception that had increased several fold. That was the result from successfully combining the properties of clear mind and focus from Air with Fire's situational awareness and timing. The only problem was that he was currently only able to enter this state of increased perception when he was under an attack of some kind or other, it was instinctual. But he theorized that with practice he'll be able to reach this state at will. But now it was time for the next Element.

"So let us, at last, begin the training for the Earth Element." started Maggie, entering what Harry had dubbed lecture mode "The Earth is the foundation of all mortal life, as it is both their home and source of sustenance. The Earth Element is ever-present and highly versatile, manifesting as both soil and seed, and witnessed in the eternal rhythms of growth, harvest, decay and rebirth.

This Element is associated with abundance, prosperity, and strength.

It can provide safety, foundations and growth. The Earth Element can be a doorway to discovering one's own spirit animal and help communicate with it.

It can improve stability, both physical and mental; Earth also allows one to understand the importance of silence and how and when to use it; it nurtures self-love and wisdom.

Not only is Earth the source and sustainer of plant and animal life, but it has also provided the clay and minerals with which humans have made tools, and the trees and stone they've used to build their homes and other structures. Nonetheless, Earth's energy has a destructive side as well, which may be experienced as earthquakes, avalanches, or mudslides.

The Earth Element can combine with Water, absorb it, or be carved out by it, depending on the amount of each Element, and the same can essentially be said of its relationship with Fire and Air. Overall, Earth is the most "grounding" of the Elements, its power keeping humans calm and centered in the midst of life's chaotic twists and turns."

It took Harry a while to digest this lecture.

But there was one thing that stood out above all else.

"Wait, so the Earth Element can help me become an animagus?" he asked hopefully. Regardless of the amount of time he had spent in this place, becoming an animagus never left his mind. He viewed it as a way for

him to connect with his father so it was always there, hiding beneath the surface.

Sighing Maggie answered him. "Yes Earth can help you get in touch with your spirit animal and by doing so the two of you can work together to bring it to the surface." _"Though in your case it's a little more complicated than that."_ he thought.

One of his personal goals in sight, Harry couldn't wait to start now. "Well then what are we waiting for? Animagus transformation here we come!" he yelled, getting pumped up.

"Uhh…I think you mean Earth manipulation here we come." came Maggie's unsure voice.

"Right, of course, totally." was Harry's response, causing Maggie to sweatdrop.

"Ok then, let us begin."

"_3 years. 3 freaking years." _thought the now 26~ year old Harry_ "Maggie wasn't kidding when he said Earth would be difficult."_

The last 3 years weren't easy for Harry. He wanted to get to the point of looking for his spirit animal as fast as possible, only to realize that that part was actually one of the more difficult ones. Well 'more difficult' was relative; everything about Earth was difficult for him. At this point all he had to show for himself were increased stamina, improved movement coordination and thanks to Earth's importance of silence he got the general idea of how to casting non-verbally. That's it. 3 years just for that. To say Harry was disappointed with himself would be an understatement. Of course Tina's sudden disappearance didn't help. Her not even telling him she was leaving or for how long she would be gone didn't sit well with him but he couldn't do anything about it till she returned and even then he could only voice his grief and not expect anything in return. It had taken him a long time but he had come to terms with the fact that when he left this place he wouldn't see her ever again.

"Hey Harry, how are you doing?"

"_Speak of the devil" _he thought, knowing she likely heard it, before speaking out loud

"Tina how nice of you to join us" he started, his sarcasm obvious "how have you been? Please tell me everything that happened in the last 3 years since you left to go…I'm sorry I must have forgotten, where did you say you were going?"

"Hmmm, I sense a bit of negativity coming from you, is everything alright with your training?" asked Tina faking ignorance

"Oh sure everything is peachy, after 3 years of near constant training I've barely been able to scratch the surface. It's like for some reason I just can't connect with Earth. But enough about me, what have you been up to all this time?" was Harry's answer, still laced with sarcasm.

"Oh, you know a little of this, a little of that; spend some time getting caught up to speed with everything that's been going on outside of this safe, untraceable, time-altering little ball of existence." she started, faking getting worked up "I mean it's not like I was sitting on my butt all these eons before you came along. I've had responsibilities that required my attention before you were born and will have them long after your bones are but dust in the wind." she finished, doing her best to appear angry.

The two stared at each other, trying to will the other into breaking contact first. Harry eventually folded. Looking away he spoke.

"We have an expiration date don't we?" Harry asked dejectedly.

Sighing Tina answered truthfully "Surely you've had already figured it out by now."

"Yeah…I just…I don't know…I didn't really want to face it, I guess."

Harry didn't know what to do, how to proceed from here. Tina couldn't blame him, after all this was his first breakup.

"How about we try being friends?" she prompted.

"Friends?" came Harry's hurt voice.

"Yes, I mean, we were friends once why not go back to that."

"I don't think it will be that easy." Harry said

"Of course it won't be easy. If it was then there wouldn't be such a thing as heartbreak in the world. But I believe it's worth it. We would never have worked out. The only way I have around the whole ageing thing is something that if you ever actually did accomplish it you would never forgive me."

"What do you mean? You talk as if there is a way for me to stop ageing. Surely that's not possible. Is it?" Harry asked not ready to give up.

Tina remained silent, just when Harry thought she wouldn't answer she did.

"Technically speaking, it is possible. Most of us have issued trials to the mortal world throughout the eons. Trials that should they be completed would allow us to grant the one who completed them a boon. What that boon is would depend on the trial, the mortal and the deity involved. It could range from something as simple as money all the way to Ascension. But the sheer time required for a trial of the magnitude necessary for Ascension is, for mortals, staggering. The minimum amount of time would be equivalent to several lifetimes. And by a third or even a fourth of that time the individual would have already put down roots, have a family, children, grandchildren he wouldn't want to outlive his children let alone his grandchildren." Tina said hoping Harry would drop this particular line of thinking. For his part Harry hadn't reacted when the deity word was uttered, having come to such a realization long ago, even if he hadn't been given the specifics. Tina explanation however did raise a question in him.

"Have you?" he asked, seeing the look on her face he elaborated "Issued a trial I mean."

"Yes, well kind of, do you remember Maggie teasing me about how my last students gave up and how I left each of them with a toy?" Tina asked.

"Yeah I remember. Gosh it feels like it centuries ago, instead of a couple of decades give or take."

"Mmm, quite. Any way those toys represented the lesson they failed in. I did it hoping that, if nothing else, they would at least figure that lesson out. Unfortunately only the youngest of the 3 brothers did, and he only figured it out near the end of his life." Tina sighed, remembering the brothers. Harry on the other hand was having different thoughts

"_Wait, 3 brothers? The youngest succeeding in the end? That sounds familiar." _Harry thought.

"Indeed, the 3 brothers were your ancestors, Antioch the eldest, Cadmus the middle one and Ignotus the youngest, from whom you are descended from.

Antioch was a very competitive person, always wanting to be the best at everything he tried. He was already a very powerful wizard in his own right, even before I came along wanting to teach him, but he wanted more it was then that I realized that while magically powerful he was very self-indulgent and weak-willed. I gave him what he asked for, a wand stronger than any other, that would later be known as the Elder wand, in the hopes that if such a wand was in his possession he would understand the danger it posed. Alas he never gave himself the chance to do so. Not a week later he was killed, after getting drunk and boasting about it.

As for Cadmus, he was an interesting individual. He was proud, arrogant but also noble and very devoted to his family. When I asked him what he wanted as a farewell present he came up with a gift that almost perfectly corresponded with his own characteristics. He wanted an object that would showcase his status as my student, ever if it humiliated me in the process –at least that's how he saw it- while at the same time he wanted a guarantee that should he die, his family could still look to him for guidance. That is how what is known as the Resurrection Stone came to be. Unfortunately when his wife died in childbirth, he was crushed. He raised his daughter alone, doing the best he could. But when said daughter grew up, married into a then prominent family and having children of her own, he decided his job was done and that he could finally reunite with his wife without regrets, by committing suicide.

Ignotus was modest and humble but also incredibly afraid of me and what I represented. So when I asked him what he wanted as a farewell present he requested something to hide himself from me. It was years later after having a family of his own that he finally realized the lesson I was trying to teach him. Acceptance. And so he removed the Cloak I gave him, passing it on to his son, who later passed it his son and so on until it eventually reach your hands." taking a breath Tina continued.

"Now, thanks to Antioch's boasting, Cadmus's increasing knowledge that was previously lost in time, Ignotus's disappearing acts and the half-assed research of a self-proclaimed researcher, later turned bard, suddenly everyone who believed the story somehow got it into their minds that by collecting all three objects they would somehow become Masters of Death. Honestly how they expect it to work is beyond me, I mean come on how was having a wand, a stone and the first invisibility cloak could suddenly keep someone from dying!" Tina exclaimed.

"The search had gotten to the point where a number of other deities complained, claiming that no one was paying their trials any attention because everyone was looking for those toys. Eventually, just to shut them up, I gathered the 3 objects and turned them into an actual trial, sealing away most of their power until someone could unite and unseal them. At which point, after an extended background check into the means he used to unite and unseal them I would offer him a appropriate reward."

Harry's response to the history lesson was a very eloquent

"Huh"

Raising an eyebrow Tina asked "What, that's all you say? No: is the trial still on? No: where are they now? No: if I gather them will I get a reward? If so what reward?"

"Well, no it was just a lot to take in, you know? As for the trial, I suppose the Wand and the Stone would be useful considering my situation but the Cloak doesn't seem all that useful, I mean Dumbledore could see through it, if it can be tracked, regardless of who tracks it then its usefulness is severely handicapped." Harry answered

"Did you not hear me when I said I sealed most of their power? Yes the Cloak is currently little better than a normal invisibility cloak BUT if you were to unseal its true power the Cloak would disappear and its symbol, the triangle would appear somewhere on your body. When accessing its power you would not just turn invisible but would actually enter a limbo-like world where you can't be seen or heard but still interact with the normal world; for example you could pass through doors or walls and let spells, any spell, pass through you. That last bit you could use it without entering the limbo-like world beforehand, instead the part of your body that would be hit would be, unconsciously, sent to the limbo-world only to return when the attack leaves the area where your body should have been. Essentially it would look like you phase through the attack." Tina explained, smirking as she watched Harry's jaw do its best to drop on the floor.

"So do you still think the Cloak is useless?" she asked already knowing the answer.

"Nope, absolutely not!' Harry exclaimed, before continuing "So how exactly does one go about unsealing the Cloak?"

"Hmm, why should I tell you? After all, the first thing you did after seeing for the first time in 3 years was use me to cope with your frustration and not in the fun way."

"Oh, well…I…um…" Harry wasn't sure what to do or say in this situation, likely for him Tina decided to let him off the hook.

"Pfft, it's ok you don't have to answer." She laughed before continuing "As for how to unseal them I'll tell you after you finish my lessons." She said, glad that she had successfully directed his attention away from the awkwardness of their initial conversation. Knowing now that time would take care of the rest.


	11. Chapter 11

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or anything else in this story. Harry Potter and his beautiful world belongs to the amazing J.K. Rowling. I do not make any money off of this story.

"speak"

"_thoughts_"

"spells"

§…parseltongue talk …§

_§…parseltongue__ thought__…§_

_Knowing now that time would take care of the rest._

CHAPTER 12

It has been 4 years since then. Harry had put communicating with his spirit animal on the back burner and as a result had managed to achieve quite a few things. He managed to combine Earth's _Calm_ \+ _Centered_ properties into Earth's _Stability_ property. He then succeeded in fusing Air's _Clear Mind _and _Focus _properties with Earth's _Stability_;which allowed him to both access and shape his mindscape. That particular experience was rather unique, even by Harry's standards.

_**Flashback (2 years ago)**_

Harry was sitting down with his eyes closed on the grass having just finished combining _Clear Mind, Focus_ and _Stability _when suddenly he felt a pull in his mind. The feeling he got from the pull was a mix of malevolence and grudging respect. Being the curious Gryffindor that he was, even after all his experiences, both in the mortal world and wherever he currently was, he let himself go and followed the pull. He found himself in the middle of a forest, in a meadow; hearing the sound of running water nearby he decided to head towards it. He came upon a creek, the water running through it crystal clear, Harry, who was certain he hadn't seen water this clear before, decided to take a sip only to find out that he couldn't actually taste the water. Somewhat disappointed he figured he might as well take a look around to see if he could find whatever it was that pulled him to this place, bracing himself for what was undoubtedly a fight up ahead, considering the malevolent feeling he got it, he took a random direction and started walking. It took him a while but he finally reached the edge of the forest, in front of him was a plain, stretching out for kilometers. At the distance he could see mountains whose peaks were piercing the clouds above. After enjoying the scenery for a bit he took to the skies; getting a bird's eye view, and with some help from his hawks' eyes metamorphosis he used, Harry saw that at the opposite end of the forest, from where he was, was a series of caves. While on his left there was a lake, with the same crystal clear water and on his right was, of all things, Hogwarts.

However, there was something wrong with this Hogwarts; its sight didn't give him the feelings Harry had long associated with the school. Instead it felt dark, uninviting, tainted even. It was obvious that whatever pulled him here originated from this dark Hogwarts, as Harry chose to call it. He didn't like this castle one bit so changing his mind he decided to instead explore the rest of the areas. Flying towards the mountains at his top speed he couldn't help but get excited, it had truly been a while since he last flew just for the fun of it. It took him approximately half an hour to reach the base of the closest mountain, considering his top speed was easily around 140~ mph, one could guess how far the mountain was from the forest. Not seeing anything out of the ordinary at the base, Harry decided to go to the peak. His mind made up he flew upwards, only to find his way blocked, unable to go further up when he was about halfway up. To make things worse he was able to barely hear a noise that, unless he ears were playing tricks on him, sounded like a trill coming from what he guessed was the peak of the mountain. After several tries he gave up, instead he flew towards the lake, that he had no problem reaching, looking at it from up above it was a massive lake, both in its diameter and its depth. While it was a beautiful lake it wasn't enough to keep Harry from noticing the same thing he noticed during both his flight through the plain and up the mountain and his flight to this lake; there wasn't anyone or anything else around, nothing living anyway. So far the only sound that could have came from another creature was that trill he heard coming from the peak of the mountain and even that Harry wasn't 100% certain he actually heard it. Having nothing else he could do, he decided to fly through the forest towards the caves. This time however as he was flying above the forest he felt, more than he saw, a presence. It wasn't carrying the malevolence he felt before, if anything it was more of an innocent curiousness. Harry stop, looking around he tried to locate the presence only for it to quickly move away until he couldn't sense it any more. Harry was conflicted, should he look for the presence? the only one other himself and the whatever gave him that malevolent feeling or continue towards the caves? In the end he decided against looking for this innocent presence; after all even if he found it then what? something told him it wouldn't enjoy the caves, never mind the tainted castle.

So he flew on, towards the caves. When he arrived he was presented with another problem, though this one was relatively easy, technically speaking of course. There were a total of 7 entrances and Harry had no way of choosing which one to enter, other than pick one randomly that is. As he stood there, wondering which one to enter, he remembered a fantasy book where the heroes of the story found themselves in a similar situation and the Wizard among them decided to follow his nose, choosing the path with the least disgusting smell coming from it. Harry would have liked to follow that example, problem was there wasn't any smell coming from the entrances at all. Knowing his luck he didn't want to enter neither the leftmost entrance nor the rightmost one, as those probably led to some kind of life-threatening situation.

"_Then again, this_ _could be the one time that rule wouldn't work." _Harry mused_ "Screw it, I'll just go with the middle one." _he thought.

Walking into the middle entrance, Harry began his exploration of the caves. A problem soon became apparent to him, the lack of light.

"_This could be troublesome. I could use the Fire element to make some light but that could attract something I'd rather avoid. Hmmm, what to do, what to do" _Harry mused, until the proverbial lightbulb in his head went off._ "Wonder if that'll work." _he thought before focusing Fire's _Illumination _property through his eyes. Admittedly he didn't believe it would actually work, his understanding of _Illumination_ was rudimentary at best, but lo and behold he could now see as if he was outside, if you exclude the fact that everything was green.

"_Wait, green? As in night vision green?"_ Harry thought, not quite ready to believe he made some progress with _Illumination_ let alone actually gaining night vision. _"What the hell, I've been through weirder thing, I'll just go with it."_

And so, with his new ability active, he trudged on, inside the cave. On and on he walked, through all the turns and twists until finally he saw light up ahead; cutting in off his night vision he walk up to the place the light was coming from, when he reach it he froze; unwillingly to accept what he was seeing. He was in the entrances again, only this time he walked out of the 2nd leftmost one. Harry was about to scream in frustration when a voice stopped him.

§…It'sss not tiiime yet …§

Harry froze. It may have been a while since he heard it but he could never misinterpret what that was. Parseltongue. There was a snake somewhere in those caves and based on the depth of its voice it wasn't a small one. At least Harry didn't get any negative feeling from the voice, it was more of reluctant patience. As if it was resigned to wait.

"_Oh, well if it can wait then so can I. Guess I'll go to the Dark Castle now." _Harry thought.

Harry was close to the grounds of the Dark Castle when suddenly he felt himself be forcefully pulled away. When he opened his eyes again he found himself sitting in the same position as he had been before this particular adventure, only this time he was staring at the emerald orbs of an angry Maggie.

"Care to explain to me why exactly you were sleeping when you were supposed to be training?"

"I was training, then suddenly I was in this forest and…" and so Harry gave Maggie and Tina (who had come over to see what happened) the complete rundown of what happened all the way till Maggie "woke" him up. After a staring context between the two deities, Maggie finally conceded

"Harry, do you trust me?" he asked

"Of course I do!" immediately came the answer

"Then trust me when I tell you not to enter your mindscape again until after you finish both of our training, OK?" Maggie said, not really asking.

Harry remained silent for a bit, digesting what Maggie just told him.

"So then that place was my mindscape? Then that means the voice I heard coming from the caves was my spirit animal? Does that mean my animagus form is a snake?" Harry fired off his questions.

"Yes, perhaps, possibly. In that order." answered Tina unusually serious.

"Is that tainted Hogwarts the reason you don't want me going back there?"

"Yes" came the answer from both Tina and Maggie simultaneously.

_**End flashback**_

It took almost 2 years of soul searching and dealing with most of his emotional baggage, it probably would have taken longer without Earth's _Stability_, but finally he was able to put his fears, anger, jealousy and pain to rest. He knew who he was, beyond the title he was made to bear, beyond the burden of that stupid prophecy, beyond the expectations others consciously or unconsciously thrust upon him. He was Harry Potter, just another wizard, no more no less. With that revelation also came clarity and perhaps more important came acceptance. Unfortunately the revelation wasn't solely focused on himself, Dumbledore had some explaining to do, Ms. Weasley too. Harry had an idea about Dumbledore's reasons, if nothing else the reasons he came up with to justify Dumbledore's actions were logical and, from a third persons view, necessary. Still Harry needed to listen to Dumbledore's reasons before he decided whether to forgive him or not. Ms. Weasley too needed to come clean, though in her case Harry was sure he wanted to learn her reasons.

Regardless all that soul-searching and subsequent self-acceptance allowed him the necessary progress in the Earth Element to pass Maggie's requirement. Leaving him with just one Element left for Maggie to teach him. Granted it was supposedly the hardest one to learn and he didn't even know what it was but still _"how hard could it be?" _Harry thought, only to grimace a second later._ "Crap. I just jinxed myself, didn't I?"_

"Oh, yeah big time."

"I would have thought you knew better by now, kid."


	12. Chapter 12

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or anything else in this story. Harry Potter and his beautiful world belongs to the amazing J.K. Rowling. I do not make any money off of this story.

"speak"

"_thoughts_"

"spells"

§…parseltongue talk …§

_§…parseltongue__ thought__…§_

CHAPTER 13

"So kid, are you ready to learn the fifth Element?" asked Maggie already knowing the answer.

"That depends, are you going to, at last, tell me what that Element is?" asked Harry sarcastically

Eyebrow twitching Maggie decided to mess with him back

"Of course not! Don't be ridiculous! There is absolutely no reason for you to know that."

.

.

.

.

.

"Oh, come on! You could have at least let me have that one. Why must you always have the last word?"

"Where's the fun in that?" Maggie questioned, genuinely curious."

"Hah, never mind. Let's just get this over with."

"Is that what Tina said when she finally agreed to sleep with you?" Maggie asked with an innocent expression on his face; mainly to see how Harry faired after the breakup. Even if it's been years trauma tended to linger after all.

"Oh, hardy har har." was Harry's answer and Maggie was happy to see that Harry had truly moved on.

"Yes, well if that's all I'd like us to start now."

"Well I'm ready, let's do it!... Please don't comment on how that sounded."

Chuckling Maggie decided to let it go this time.

"Now, then the Fifth Element. The binding Element, the Spirit. Or Akasha or Aether or Ether or Soul. Really, it comes with many names but they all refer to the same thing. The Spirit Element is the celestial energy that is present in all things. It is invisible, but essential for the connection and balance between all other Elements.

Spirit is what is called forth in rituals, through the invoking of the God and Goddess, and of the Elements. It dwells in humans as living beings, both when they are aware of it and when they are not. But when they _are_ aware of Spirit, and when they have clear and focused intentions, they can utilize this core, fundamental energy to manifest their desired change through what you know as magical work. No matter which term is used, the Element of Spirit—the Fifth Element—can be elusive to grasp, even though it is within and all around us. It is an energy that is so intangible and mysterious, it's no wonder that it has so many different names."

"Wait a second there. You say that the fifth Element is Spirit? And that those that are aware of it can use it to use magic? That doesn't make sense. I mean if a muggle suddenly becomes aware of Spirit would that mean he'll suddenly become a wizard? If something like that was possible then somewhere, somehow that would have happened and people would have learned of it. Both magicals and non-magicals."

"You took that too literally. Tell me do you know what 'magic' actually is?" Maggie asked.

"It's a power the magicals have that lets them use spells and stuff." came Harry's answer.

"Impressive. Every word in that sentence was wrong." Maggie said, genuinely impressed.

{AN: Sound familiar?}

"Harry, what you call 'magic' is merely the ability to harness the power of your soul in order to exert your will upon the world. Now obviously the world will fight back every time, which is why sometimes spells, rituals etc. don't work. The will you'd have exerted onto the world, and the power you used to do so isn't enough to overcome the world's resistance. Do you remember back when we first met, when I told you stealing another's magic for yourself isn't good for you? What your mother essentially did, was to, in laymen's terms, sever said ability from your aunt and cousin and put it in you. Basically while it is possible to severe the ability, it's not possible to transfer said ability to another, especially when they already possess it. With that said you wouldn't be you if you didn't pull an impossibility out of your butt. Somehow your ability to tap into your soul's power increased, meaning you can tap onto more of your soul's power while the world's resistance against your will decreased. And the reason that was bad for you was because the increase put a strain in your body. Of course all that is in the past, between Fire's Regeneration, Earth's Harvest and Growth, you won't have to worry about your body breaking down." Maggie gave his long winded explanation.

Harry just sat there, slowly processing, categorizing and accepting everything.

"You said that Spirit is used to invoke Gods or Goddesses in rituals?"

"Yes."

"Then the ritual my mother used on Aunt Petunia and Dudley, which deity did she call upon to severe their magic?"

"That would be me." Came Tina's voice from behind him.

"You?! ... Something tells that wasn't random."

"Of course not. Technically Maggie should have been called, but I used your ancestor link to, for lack of a better word, hijack the call. You see while Maggie would have been able to sever your relatives magic, he wouldn't be able to use that to strengthen yours. I, on the other hand could do it. I also made sure your mother knew a certain time would be needed to pass in order for your body to synchronize with the increased ability, so I gave her some subtle hints to bind your magic. I also gave her most of the schematics for the double ritual you underwent. That way your magic would be unbind and practically immediately afterwards you would learn how to strengthen your body to deal with the strain." Tina explained.

Harry just sat there watching Tina, even after she had finished talking until he noticed something.

"Hold on, how could you bypass the ritual's targeted God? Heck, out of all the deities out there – and something tells me there are more than a couple– why was Maggie the one to call upon, don't get me wrong I don't have a problem with it. It's just that I don't see how the Elements could do something like removing an ability from someone. Surely there are other deities out there that can do so."

"You're right there are other deities out there that can remove a mortal's ability to tap into the power of their soul. The reason your mother called upon me, even if she didn't what she was doing at the time, has to do with the same window of opportunity that allowed us to train you. Can you guess what that is?" Maggie said.

"… Blood, my mother and I are your descendants." Harry realized, remembering the words both Maggie and Tina spoke back then.

"And my father and I are your descendants." he continued, looking at Tina.

"Correct. Although it's been a few millennia since we walked on the mortal world, some of our descendants still pop up from time to time." Maggie said.

"And they are the only mortals we're allowed to teach." supplemented Tina.

"Huh."

"That was anticlimactic. I was expecting a bigger response." Said Maggie

"What can I say, spending all these years with you two must have desensitized me." Harry responded.

"Well that sucks. Guess we'll have to up the ante." said Tina.

"Or we can continue the lesson. Now where were we? Ah, yes. You were asking why there haven't been manmade magicals. Well you took the part about 'humans who are aware of Spirit can use magic and those that aren't can't. It's not the conscious part of a human that matters. The unconscious does play a part but it's not the deciding factor in whether a human can you magic or not. The deciding factor… well it's hard to describe it. It's equal parts _desire_, to be different than the masses, _will_, to have the resolve to stay true to your desire to be different, _adaptability_, to be capable of change and _instinct_, to tap into the soul's energy without knowing it. Why do you think magical schools start at 11 years old. Regardless of how one goes about tracking magic they won't be able to track it if someone is a few months old. Yes thanks to magical parents the children can perform what you call accidental magic before they are a year old. But that has to do with watching their parents do magic and, more importantly, they are unknowingly exposed to it. They are soaked in the left over energy of their parents spells, the magic from various enchantments or artifacts. Hell, even the magic of other magical creatures. The babies will instinctively absorb the leftover energy and in doing so gain the ability to tap into their own source of power."

"This is so confusing." Harry grumbled.

"Yes well, if it was easy, there would be a great deal more magicals than they are." said Maggie.

**3 years later**

"GAAAAAH! Why is this so hard?!" yelled the now 33~ year old Harry Potter.

Maggie merely sighted while Tina decided to poke fun at Harry. The two were sitting in the grass some distance away, to give some sense of privacy to help with his training.

"I don't know, maybe because you jinxed it?"

"Shut up." Harry sulked.

Maggie was right, no surprise there. Spirit **was** the hardest Element to train in. After 3 years of near constant training and what did he had to show for? Nothing, ziltch, nada. It was like there was block, no not a block, a wall? That wasn't it either, but there was something stopping him and he had a feeling surpassing whatever it was, was a pivotal part of this training.

Harry looked over at the two deities that were sitting down in the grass a ways away, talking to each other about something or other. He remembered how they could ready his mind. He knew from his parents memories about Legilimency and Occlumency and he had planned to learn both. But he had a feeling that what Maggie and Tina were doing was something different, something more. As he was watching the two, thinking he wanted to know what they thought for a change, something happened. He suddenly felt his magic, no his soul's power, the fundamental energy of his being, whatever, respond. He felt his mind expand, surrounding him and moving further outward, until it reached the two deities. Then all he knew was pain until darkness took him.

11111111111111111111111111111111111

"Well, that could have gone better."

"You think?"

"Oh, come on Tina, you know how Spirit works and you also agreed it would be beneficial if his Spirit Manipulation manifested like that. It was the reason we went out of our way to repeatedly show him we could ready his mind, enough to make him realize we weren't using that decrepitated thing that passes as mind reading these days, Legi-something or other."

"I know but that doesn't mean I have to like baiting him to hurt himself."

"Well, technically it's not our fault he reached into our minds, no matter how brief the connection was, besides now he will know better that to haphazardly use it. And it's not like liked it either."

"Please Maggie, we're the only ones here who else could he have reached into."

"True, but what's done is done. Now he'll be able to progress with his training. And he gained an extremely useful ace up his sleeve that would greatly help him in the future."


	13. Chapter 13

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or anything else in this story. Harry Potter and his beautiful world belongs to the amazing J.K. Rowling. I do not make any money off of this story.

1111111111111111111111111111111111111

"speak"

"_thoughts_"

"spells"

§…parseltongue talk …§

_§…parseltongue__ thought__…§_

1111111111111111111111111111111111111

CHAPTER 14

Consciousness slowly returned to him and with it came an uncomfortable feeling, like suddenly being too big for his own body. Which was weird by itself considering Harry has always been on the smaller side when it came to his body size. Still the feeling persisted and Harry wasn't sure how he could to stop it. It was then that he heard Maggie's voice.

"Come on, Harry, open your eyes. That weird feeling you're feeling won't go recede by you stay like that."

"Ugh, what happened?"

"What's the last thing you remember?" came Tina's voice, uncharacteristically serious. That alone was enough for Harry to dust off the clogs in his mind.

"I was trying to figure out how to train in the Spirit Element, without any progress, when looked over at you two and suddenly something happened. I felt, I don't know, something expand around me I guess, and then move towards you guys and then I felt pain, pain like nothing I had experienced before… and then… nothing." Harry recounted before asking "What happened?"

"You took your first step towards Spirit Manipulation. You see Spirit is special among the Elements, it doesn't have any specific properties or abilities. It can be anything. Someone that wants to train in it must first tap into his soul's power and, for lack of a better word, shape it to something unique to him. Well, it won't necessarily be unique, but it will be something based on his own desire. Some may end up with the ability to breath underwater, others with the ability to breath fire or enhance their senses or strength; or even to manipulate others through a number of different means. Really Spirit's Properties and the Abilities that originate from them can be quite diverse." Maggie explained.

"In your case, you shape it into what you could call Mental Powers. Powers that come from the mind. Specifically telepathy and telekinesis." further explained Tina.

"So, does that mean I can suddenly use legilimency and occlumency?" asked Harry

"No. Those things are botched up versions of the real thing." said Maggie.

"An accurate comparison between legilimency and occlumency to telepathy would be the difference between a 5-year-old child and an adult at their prime. Both human, but the child has nothing on the adult. Whether it is legilimency or occlumency they are both mental abilities but they aren't on the same level as telepathy. Telepathy grants you greater strength and freedom when it comes to the mind. And how to manipulate both your own and that of others." explained Maggie.

"So, what's the difference?" asked a confused Harry.

"Legilimency can barely pick up surface thoughts or feelings and Occlumency can shield them, by compartmentalizing your mind, which essentially it does by weakening your connection with your soul and as such your magic, since it depends heavily on your feelings." Started explaining Maggie "While telepathy grants better access to your soul, and gives you a greater variety of useful abilities. Some of them include mind reading and shielding, memory reading and manipulating, psychic communication, within a certain distance of course, although said distance can be increased through training. You could even copy and replicate someone's knowledge and skills. Those are just some of the abilities telepathy can grant you. See the difference now?"

Harry did and he was getting excited now. There was so much he could with just the abilities Maggie mentioned and something told him Maggie left the more useful ones for him to figure out on his own. It certainly wouldn't be the first time this particular teacher of his did such a thing.

"What about telekinesis? What can that do?" Harry asked.

"You mean other than the usual control stuff with your mind? It can help boost your other Elemental manipulations even to the point you can manipulate different forms of the same Element. For example it can help boost your Earth manipulation to include Sand or Stone manipulation. Or increase abilities like your Flight's speed and maneuverability. There are other stuff it can do too but you'll have to figure those out yourself."

"For now let's get you to close yourself off, so you won't get overwhelmed, ok?" asked/ordered Tina.

**6 years later**

The now 39 year old Boy-Who-Lived had made significant progress during this time, then again considering it took half that time just to get started the bar wasn't exactly high. The first thing he learned was to close his mind off, so that he wouldn't be overwhelmed by the cacophony of noise that was every living thing's 'voice'. And only focus his mind on 1 or 2 telepathic abilities at one point, although that number would increase as his mastery over telepathy did. After that Harry focused on learning the basic abilities of telekinesis, he could now stop both animate and inanimate objects from moving, and he could grab, pull or push things with his mind; even choke someone or create a field around him where objects would orbit around him. That last one made for a useful defense and Harry couldn't wait to fuse it with Air's tornado wall, hopefully that would allow him to control the redirection of whatever was thrown at him. He was even starting on what Maggie dubbed the advanced stuff. Specifically of the 3 advanced abilities, he was currently focusing on Telekinesis' _Elemental Manipulation_, in order to boost his normal Elemental Manipulation. What was interesting was that, apparently, he had a knack for Telepathy. He had already mastered the basic abilities, which consisted of _Mind Reading_ (which was infinitely better than Legilimency according to Maggie and apparently only the best of Occlumens had a chance to block him, if only for a little bit), _Psychic Shield_ (which shielded his mind against others' attempts to scan or read it), _Psychic Communication_ (that allowed him to psychically link one or more people, allowing them to communicate telepathically) and _Empathy_ (which let him interpret the emotions of others). Harry was currently working on 3 advanced abilities. The ability _Download_, as Maggie called it, which would allow him to quickly download, process and store information from another's mind; _Knowledge Replication_, again Maggie's name, which would allow him to replicate the knowledge and skills of those he used _Download_ on; and lastly the ability called _Psychic Navigation_ that would allow him to create a mental map of an area. Just thinking of the idea of using _Download _on Dumbledore and then _Knowledge Replication _to essentially copy all of the Headmaster's prodigious skills and knowledge was making him giddy.

Harry's current telepathic range was either 10 meters in diameter when used as a field around him or instead 20 meters in one direction. While his telekinetic range varied. He could manipulate an inanimate object around a 15 meter radius around himself. But moving animate things (currently Tina and Maggie - who decreased their resistance in order to help Harry train) with his mind was a great deal harder. Apparently every individual has a certain amount of resistance and he has to use more magic (he went back to calling it such because 'ability to tap into the power of your soul and use it to submit the world to your will, overcoming its resistance' was a bit of a mouthful) to overcome his animate target's resistance. Apparently it was also possible to build up one's resistance to another's control, be it telepathic control or telekinetic one. Harry was also supposed to increase his own resistances though he had trouble figuring out how to do it. Another thing he was trying to figure out was how to increase both his telepathic and telekinetic ranges. All in all he certainly had his work cut out for him.

"_Then again when have I not had my work cut out for me. At least this time, in this place it was my decision to learn."_ Harry mused, expecting some kind of retort from the 2 deities, only to be met with silence.

"_Interesting." _Harry thought_ "MAGGIE IS A BAD LECTURER AND TINA IS A CRADLE ROBBER!" _Harry screamed in his mind causing the deities to shudder and then glare at him.

"Harry, What the hell?!"

"What are you talking about?! I'm an excellent lecturer!

"_There we go." _Harry thought.

"What's with the whole pretending not to listen to my thoughts guys?" he asked, ignoring their outbursts.

"Hah, we wanted you to realize you can block another's mind reading with your _Psychic Shield._" Maggie grumbled their reasoning.

"No shit Sherlock. I'm asking you why you thought pretending my _Shield_ was strong enough to block the likes of you two would amount to anything; other than a possible big-headedness on my part. Or do you two have a penchant for listening on others thought when they don't know you're listening?" Harry asked.

"…Someone's getting smarty" Maggie drawled.

"Could be worse, he could be…nope, can't think of anything." Tina said.

"Yes, well, I'm having trouble training up my telekinetic resistance. I need some help… and I'm saying that knowing full well what that would entail for me." Harry said, grimacing towards the end. _"Maybe pissing them off before asking for help wasn't the best course of action."_ He thought belatedly, and judging by the malevolent grins that marred both their face Harry was in for a world of hurt.


	14. Chapter 14

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or anything else in this story. Harry Potter and his beautiful world belongs to the amazing J.K. Rowling. I do not make any money off of this story.

1111111111111111111111111111111111111

"speak"

"_thoughts_"

"spells"

§…parseltongue talk …§

_§…parseltongue__ thought__…§_

1111111111111111111111111111111111111

"_Maybe pissing them off before asking for help wasn't the best course of action." He thought belatedly, and judging by the malevolent grins that marred both their faces Harry was in for a world of hurt._

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CHAPTER 15

**9 years later**

The 48-year-old Harry Potter was excited. He had progressed far enough in Spirit to FINALLY learn enough of the Elements for Maggie to let him go. Which meant he could soon get started with Tina's training. He, admittedly, was curious about what Tina would teach him, as she was surprisingly tight-lipped about it. Sure Harry had some ideas but nothing concrete.

As for his gains during the last 9 years they were something like this:

**Telekinesis**:

He could move both inanimate and animate objects with his mind at will, with little to no difficulty. According to Maggie the only, mortal, living beings Harry couldn't currently move, as their resistance was greater than his current limit were Dragons, Giants, 1000-year-old Basilisks; creatures with incredibly high magical resistance in general. Harry learned Telekinesis' Elemental Manipulation (or T.E.M. as he came to call it), but before he started fusing it with his original E.M. Harry went on to learn Telekinesis' _Spatial Sense_, which allowed one to sense his surroundings through Telekinesis. Then he learned_ Telekinetic Teleportation_, which was a great way to cover great distances apparently, and as an added bonus, it wasn't half as uncomfortable as Apparition, or so Maggie said, not to mention it could apparently bypass just about any ward, say Hogwarts' for instance. The only downside with _Telekinetic Teleportation_ was that you had to either have already been there before or have a picture of the place you wanted to go to. It was only after he learned these 3 advanced abilities that he started fusing them with the various properties and abilities of the other Elements.

He had successfully fused together his Spirit's _Orbital Field_ with his Air's _Tornado Wall_ and he was right; he could now not only control the redirection of the curses or objects but also increase their redirected speed, it also had the added bonus that he could now use it not only around himself but also around others that weren't in his immediate proximity, though they still needed to be in the same room or within eyesight; **and** it was now powerful enough to shield against both the Unforgivables and curses like Fiendfyre; Maggie decided it was his right as the teacher to name the fused abilities naming this one the '_Orbiting Tornado'_.

Once he learned _Telekinetic Elemental Manipulation_ and fused it with his own Elemental Manipulation Harry received a major boost. Specifically he actually managed to master both his Air's _Air Manipulation _and his _Flight_ (further increasing his already considerable speed to over 190~mph something no broom was capable of). All his other Air Abilities significantly strengthened as well. His Air barrier's deflecting speed and power increased, it could now handle everything up till the Unforgivables, even offer him some protection from Fiendfyre. What's more is that Harry also managed to fuse his _Air Barrier_ with his _Spatial Sense; _giving him both a detailed 360o vision and the ability to see through walls; Maggie named this one the '_All-seeing Eye'_. Harry could now easily throw his Tornado ball, which was also strengthened into a pretty scary attack. Both his passive _increased speed_ and his _Speed Burst_ have had their speed increased, covering more ground, while _Speed Burst_'s cooldown period disappeared altogether. Harry also learned how to generate _Electricity_ through atmospheric pressure; creating _Lightning_. He could now use _Electricity _to stimulate his nerves allowing him to increase his reaction time; Maggie decided to call this ability '_Lightning Reflexes'_.

Everything else also received a boost, though it wasn't an equally great boost. Specifically for Harry's Water Element, through his fusion of _Telekinetic Elemental Manipulation_ with his own E.M. Harry's _Water Manipulation_ managed to reach a level where he could actually manipulate blood, both his own and another's. According to Maggie that showed that Harry had master _Water Manipulation _and he should move on to _'Blood Manipulation'_ as Maggie termed it. Even though Harry wasn't interested in learning that, he did learn enough to help with his _Water's Healing_ and _Purifying _properties.

His Fire Element it's_ Regeneration_ property was also boosted by _T.E.M._ to the point where, even if it still took certain amount of time, it no longer drained him to re-grow lost limbs; still hurt like a sonavabitch though. His Fire's _Illumination_, which he had mostly only ever used it for his _Night Vision_, also received a boost. It was no longer just night vision, it could now filter light at will letting it also work as super-tinted sunglasses; Maggie, in all his ancient and experienced wisdom, decided to call it '_Night Glasses'_. Fusing Air's _Clear Mind__,_ _Focus_, _Lightning Reflexes_ and Fire's _Situational_ _Awareness_ and _Timing_ with Spirit's _Spatial _Sense Harry was able to learn how to enter his **Increased Perception State **(AKA **I.P.S.** AKA appear to slow down time) at will.

As for the boost his Earth Element gained from his T.E.M. Harry gained the ability to manipulate vibrations either Omni-directional from his body or One-directional from his limbs, a punch with using that was bound to drop just about most magicals. This _Vibration Manipulation_ allowed Harry to generate powerful waves of vibrations which can produce effects resembling those of earthquakes. He is also immune to any harmful effects of the vibrations he creates. Harry also learned to use both _Stone_ and _Sand Manipulation_ like Maggie had told him he would.

All in all his Telekinesis train had went well, that is not to say his Telepathy training had gone badly though. No, in fact even if it wasn't as diverse as his Telekinesis Abilities, he learned some very useful ones. Sure they were some pretty Grey stuff, useful but Grey. Hell most of them were couldn't even be considered Grey no matter how you spin them.

**Telepathy:**

The only ability Harry learned that could be considered purely Grey was _Telepathic Prediction_, which let him know his opponent's moves and attacks by reading their brain waves. It wasn't perfect but when coupled with his **I.P.S. **it came pretty damn close. _Telepathic Speaking Inducement_ on the other hand was, at best, a darker Grey ability, after all, making others say what you want them to say can cause quite the damage if done correctly. And then there were abilities like _Memory Manipulation, Emotion Manipulation, Subconscious Manipulation, Subliminal Messaging _and flat out _Mind Control; these_ could only be considered Dark, even if Harry were to use them with good intentions. But Harry had long since stopped viewing the world as black and white; he would use everything he could to keep his precious people alive and well. And if that meant using these telepathic abilities that everyone else would see as Dark then so be it; Harry wasn't an idiot, at least he liked to think that he graduated from that during his time training in this place. He had come to accept that Voldemort would eventually return and when he did he would target Harry, and by proxy everyone he cares about, with a vengeance. The emerald eyed man had no intention of letting anyone he cared about be harmed because of a demented, delusional, power-hungry psychopath. Whether Riddle went after someone he didn't know or someone who treated him wrongly without even bothering to listen to reason (like say, the majority of Hogwarts' student population) Harry couldn't care less. Granted Harry wasn't actually planning on letting anyone in on all the abilities he'd gained in his stay here, some things were just better left alone. He _was_ planning on fighting the self proclaimed Dark Lord when he eventually returns but only for his own and his friends' sake.

"Alright Harry, you better get ready cause it's finally my turn now!" exclaimed an excited Tina.

"I am. I've actually been curious about what you were going to teach me to be honest."

"Ehehe, I see. But I have to warn you, whatever it is you were expecting it, and I can tell you've been expecting similar lessons as your ancestor and his older brothers, you won't be expecting this. In order for you to understand I'll have to properly introduce myself."

"You see, Harry, I am more than just a deity of Death. I am the personification of the Primordial Goddess of the Night, Darkness, Death and Shadow. Born from Chaos, I stood near the beginning of creation alongside my four siblings. I go by many names such as _Erebus_, _Thanatos_ and _Schia_ in Ancient Greece. In Sanskrit I was called _R__ájas_, in Gothic _Rigis_, in Old Norse _Røkkr _; I have had many other names but the one prefer is **Nyx.** Well, I've actually gotten pretty used to 'Tina' lately but that's besides the point. Now being a Primordial has, like everything else, its advantages and disadvantages. In this case I cannot just start teaching anyone, even if they are a descendant of mine, about my Domains as I feel like. The best I can do is have you choose one of my Domains and teach you everything about it. For unlike Maggie's elements you won't be able to train in it further once you leave this place."

Harry remained stock still having blacked out pretty much at the beginning of Tina's introduction. Noticing she had lost his attention Tina called out to the emerald eyed man.

"Hello? Harry? Are you in there?" she asked, waving her hands in front of his face.

"You aren't going to get his attention like that Tina." started Maggie before continuing.

"This is how you bring him back to the present." He said, smacking Harry upside down in the back of his head.

"Ow!" Harry yelped. "What the hell man?" he asked Maggie.

"Not my fault you where spacing out kid."

"Well excuse me for needing some time to accept the fact that I lost my virginity to a freaking Primordial Goddess that's been around since pretty much the beginning of everything!" Harry yelled, still having trouble coming to terms with it.

"Gives a new meaning to the term 'cradle robber' doesn't it?" Maggie said, chuckling at Harry's reaction.

"Watch it, Magnus." Tina said, her face darkening and along with it the sky, the trees, the grass darkened, even the shadows became deeper, it was like darkness arrived to blot out the sun, or whatever it was that gave off light in this place.

Maggie did the sensible thing and shut up. After all it wasn't every day that a primordial used your full name like that. No, they mostly did that just before they reduced you to cosmic dust, to be reformed a few millennia later with a different name, personality, hobbies, everything that makes you, you really.

Looking away from Maggie after she was sure he wouldn't jump in to 'help', Tina looked back at Harry waiting for him to speak. She had to actively keep herself from reading his mind, or his expression for that matter.

For his part, Harry had already gotten over his original surprise; spending decades with these two had done wonders for his ability to just go with the flow and was contemplating what Tina told him about her domains and the limitations placed on them.

"Say, what exactly do these Ancient Laws say about Primordials teaching their domains? What even are Domains in the first place?" he asked.

"Well, we can't really talk about the Ancient Laws." Answered Tina with a sheepish look

"Seriously? What is this? Fight club?" Harry asked exasperatedly before re-asking his question.

"So, again what are these Domains?"

"Let's see, how best to describe a Domain…I guess the easiest way is to think of a Domain is as a trunk."

"Huh, I'm sorry I think I misheard you, I think I heard you say it's like a trunk?!" Harry asked, wondering how she could be messing with him now of all times.

"Hear me out. Picture a trunk with some stuff in. You may own the trunk and everything inside but that doesn't mean you can't lend out something that's inside the trunk, or give someone else access to it. You can also teach another how to use the stuff inside the trunk. But it is dangerous business because once you give someone access to the trunk and its contents they can turn around and steal it. Whether all of the stuff that were originally inside the trunk were there when it was stolen doesn't matter. If the trunk is stolen you lose both it and everything that was inside it when it was stolen. And those who have multiple Domains have multiple trunks. There have been plenty of wars because a fellow God either attempted or succeeded in stealing another's Domain. And a few where a mortal turned God or a mortal student also stole a Domain. So you see no matter how unlikely it is possible to usurp a God's power, regardless of whether you are one. It was for this reason that we distanced ourselves from the mortal world."

"Huh, what do you know; Domains do sound like trunks." said Harry still wrapping his head around the implications of sharing a Domain with anyone else. He gave Tina a square look

"And you trust me to not abuse this? I mean I could sweet talk you into teaching me secrets you otherwise wouldn't, not to mention the danger of letting someone else access to your Domain, even a mortal. Like you just said there have been instances where a mortal stole from a God."

Tina just smiled. "I know you Harry, you won't abuse this. And to answer your next question, even if in the future you change into someone who would abuse this, something I wholeheartedly hope never happens, I already told you; you won't be able to train or usurp it once you leave this place, it's part of the loophole if a God wants to share his or hers Domain no matter what."

"Ok, fine. But do Laws say I must only choose one domain and nothing else. Or can I choose some powers from one domain and some from another. Not everything from one domain but a few things from a few domains."

"You mean like a Jack of all trades kind of thing?"

"Yeah, I guess."

"Hmmm, to be honest I don't think such a thing has happened before. The Laws certainly don't forbid it, heck such a thing isn't even mentioned in them." Tina answered before breaking into a smile

"I do believe you found a loophole no one else has noticed before. And coming from me that is saying something."

Harry smiled at the compliment

"So how are we going to do this?" he asked.

"Hmmm, let's see… thanks to the loophole you found my main problem of what to teach pretty much disappeared, though we should be smart with this, wouldn't want someone else finding out about it before we're finished." Tina mused.

Maggie, who figured it was ok to speak again, couldn't help himself.

"Maybe we could name it the Harry loophole… no that doesn't sound right. Maybe the Potter loophole?"

Tina chuckled "How about we don't name it something that would put a target on his back? Not all of us are as accepting to the fact that a mortal figured out a loophole with basically zero knowledge of the Laws, not to mention one as young as Harry."

Harry grimaced "Yeah, if you could keep me out of whatever godly trouble you're going to cause that be great."

"… I suppose I can come up with a better name for it." Maggie grumbled

"He isn't going to make his own names about the things you'll teach me, is he?" Harry couldn't help asking, already having had enough of that.

"Hahaha, no Harry he isn't. It's actually the other way around it. He went out of his way to name your abilities _because_ everyone with a Domain has already named everything in it. He was feeling left out."

"Huh, that makes sense, I guess?"

"Not really Harry, but enough about that. I have decided which powers I'll grant you. However we cannot proceed to teaching you here; this is Maggie's world. It is impossible to train here for anything other than Maggie's Elements. The reason you could train and fuse Metamorphosis with the various Elements was because it was an ability that originated from Spirit. Now we have to go to my realms. I hope you're not afraid of the dark, Harry, it will be a while till you see light again." And with that, without giving Harry a chance to speak let alone brace himself, there was a flash of black light and the two were gone.

"Hmph! How rude! Leaving like that, not even saying goodbye, even though she knows I'm not a Primordial and therefore can't enter their realms." Maggie grumbled.


	15. Chapter 15

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or anything else in this story. Harry Potter and his beautiful world belongs to the amazing J.K. Rowling. I do not make any money off of this story.

1111111111111111111111111111111111111

"speak"

"_thoughts_"

"spells"

§…parseltongue talk …§

_§…parseltongue__ thought__…§_

1111111111111111111111111111111111111

CHAPTER 15

Nyx or Tina, as she preferred Harry call her, took him to one of her realms; for his part Harry managed not to freak out to much when she told him that, for him, all her realms were basically just floating in darkness, with zero illumination of any kind. So, there they were, floating, Harry waiting for Tina to start.

"So… I won't bother you with the boring stuff like lectures and then let you have all the time you need to figure out the numerous potential uses of each of my Domains. Instead I will show you specific abilities that you can harness from my Domains. The first 2 abilities are, in a way, similar to Maggie's Elements, in the sense that they are Manipulation abilities. I will teach how to manipulate Darkness. To create, control and transform into darkness at will; that last part is great for dodging any non light or fire spells and for bypassing wards or enchantments. I will teach you to manipulate Gravity. For both yourself as well as both animate and inanimate targets, it can be used for offence, defense and support. Once you learn these abilities I'll have you create your own Storage. Though create isn't the right word, it's more like claiming a piece of my Darkness Domain, shaping it to your preference, as much as it can be shape it that is. I suggest the 'Rules' you set up include a stasis effect, where you no time passes within and that it can store both animate and inanimate things. Once you've learned all that I'll have you fuse them to create miniature Black Holes where everything sucked in is taken to your Storage. These are the abilities you'll gain from my Darkness Domain. We will then move to my Domain over Death; where I will show you how to Drain Magic from people, magical creatures or plants, enchantments and wards. Understand, Harry, that what this ability actually does is drain their souls both from people and creatures, in the case of plants it drains their vitality; it does not matter whether they are magical, as you call it, or not. Or, in case of wards and enchantments, the power of the soul the caster or enchanter put in them. You must be careful with this one Harry, for if you completely drain a person or creature's 'magic' they will die. There is also the possibility where you **almost** completely drain magical people or creatures which would turn the magical people into what they call squibs, and the creatures will weaken to the point where they'll die soon after. Remember Harry, that whether you drain people completely or just about it will not add to your 'magic'; the power will simply be gone, taken to my Domain. That's all I'm going to teach of my Death Domain; after that we will move to my Shadow Domain where you will learn two abilities. The Shadow Travel ability which would allow you to instantly travel between places, through shadows. The other ability is called the Shadow Clone ability, this one creates a physical copy of yourself; this copy will be capable of learning, moving, casting spells -interacting with the world basically. The real advantage however is in its ability to transfer memories, knowledge even experiences to the original, once you either end it or the clone sustain enough damage that would have killed you. There are drawbacks of course, even making one such clone is dangerous; for when you end this ability, not only will your mind be assaulted with all the memories, knowledge and experience of the copy at once, but also whatever pain or exhaustion, both physical and mental, the clone had experienced throughout its existence. So that's it. These 7 abilities are what I'm going to teach you. All of them dangerous in their own right but I believe you will be able to use them correctly; hopefully with minimum accidents."

Tina gave a serious summary of what Harry was about to be subjected to.

"…."

"What's up Harry? Why are you so quiet?"

"… Sorry could you repeat that? I'm afraid I wasn't prepared for your serious side and I kind of black out."

.

.

.

"I'm sure that sounded funny in your head but really wasn't." Tina pouted.

"Really? I thought it deserved at least a chuckle. Where's Maggie when you need him?" Harry sighed, before actually noticing his absence. "Wait, where IS Maggie? Somehow I don't think he'd want to miss this."

"Oh, Maggie can't enter my domains. Lower, for lack of a better word, level deities can't enter Domains or realms of Higher leveled ones. On the other hand Higher level Deities can enter realms of Lower level one's at will, while needing to ask for permission to enter realms of those of equal stature. So in short, no more Maggie for a while." Tina answered

"If I were to ask you for the differences in the level, as you called it, between deities would I get an answer involving the Ancient Laws and how you can't tell me?"

"Right now, yes but maybe that will change in the distant, for your standards, future."

"Huh, good to know. Alright then, let's begin."

**11 years later**

"Huff…huff" the now 59 year old Harry Potter breathed heavily. Turns out Domain abilities were harder to learn. 11 years for 7 abilities, powers, whatever you call them, are a lot. The time it took him to learn them was second only to his Spirit training, and that was saying something. Still he learned them and was ready to, hopefully, move on to the training he had wanted to do since he was 23.

"Well done Harry! With that you've learned all I could teach you." praised Tina.

"Huff… Thanks! Say Tina, do you think I can stay here a little longer? I want to try my hand at animagus training. I mean I know you and Maggie told me to leave it alone but it's been decades since then, surely I'm ready now, right?"

Tina sighed, honestly she should have seen this coming; but apparently that's what she get's for staying out of his mind.

"It was never about you being ready Harry. I think we should go back to Maggie, loath as I am to admit, he'll probably explain it better than me." Tina said before taking Harry with her back to Maggie's realm.

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**Magnus' realm**

Maggie sighted, he was bored out of his mind. But that's the price for suddenly gaining an apprentice again after centuries of basically doing nothing. Especially one as gifted as Harry, not that Maggie would ever tell him that.

Suddenly there was flash of black light and his favorite apprentice was there.

"_Along with the rude extra."_ he thought.

"_Someone's cranky. And insensitively forgetful."_ came the almost unexpected answer.

Maggie decided to ignore her for the moment.

"So Harry, have you had enough of her and decided to come back to your senses and continue you training under me?"

"Umm, that first part is a resounding no. As for the last part… sort of. I asked Tina if I could give my animagus training a go now that I've learned everything and she said you'd be able to better explain why you didn't want me doing that before."

"I see… hmm… alright you can train your animagus transformation here BUT only after you train you mental powers to the next level." said Maggie with a smile.

"But why? aren't I at a good enough level already?"

"Adequate yes. Good enough no. There is much space for improvement yet. I'm not saying master everything but at least master some of it."

"Master some of it?"

"Yes, as in master some of the hardest and most difficult abilities of your telepathy and telekinesis. Because, Harry, it will be infinitely harder for you to progress further in any Element, much less Spirit, once you leave this place."

"Oh, well… Ok. I'll start now I guess."

**5 years later**

It took Harry 5 years to learn enough about both his telepathic abilities and his telekinetic ones to satisfy Maggie. Well as far as his telekinesis went he only managed to re-enforce what he already had and learn one more ability. But what ability it was; _Telekinetic Regeneration_ ruled. By using telekinesis to increase the rate of cell division he could close wounds regenerate limbs, fight off infections, viruses etc. And, when he fused it with his already empowered Fire's Regeneration, it reached the point where the speed of his Healing Factor was similar to the one from that American animated show Dudley was watching when he returned to #4 Privet Drive the summer after his second year –_"Wait that's __**this**__ summer! Oh God! It will be a pain to get used to thinking like all these decades haven't happened. At least I don't have metal claws coming out from between my knuckles."_

His telepathic powers on the other hand were not only strengthened but he also learned a bunch of other abilities. Abilities such as:

**Mind Image**: The ability to project an image or action to the mind of another.

**Psychic Torture**: The ability to torture victims mentally.

**Psychosomatic Illusion**: The ability to create powerful illusions that may cause severe physical damage.

**Knowledge Projection****/ Instruction**: The ability to project knowledge into another's mind. Teaching another a language for example.

**Mental Hallucination**: The ability to cause hallucinations to another.

**Intuitive Aptitude**: To learn how an object/spell/enchantment/ward/etc. works by taking it apart and putting it back together. At least to the degree of the maker/caster/enchanter/warder that made/cast them was capable of. (ex. Taking apart and putting back together a time-turner will let him know how to make them.

That last one required the necessary mastery of Arithmancy and Ancient Runes involved, but with _Download_ Harry wasn't worried.

So Maggie was finally pacified enough to let him start his animagus transformation traning. But before that Maggie needed to tell Harry some things; things that strictly speaking he wasn't allowed to speak of, but, hopefully the roundabout way he'd go with would be enough to let him off the hook.

"Harry I believe you have been told that when Riddle tried to kill you when you were a baby he instead, what was the phrase? Aaa, yes. Transferred some powers to you, correct?" Maggie began.

"Yeah… I used to believe that, but I've been skeptical about it for a while."

"Good, now remember I can't tell you everything. What I can tell you is that he didn't so much transfer powers to you as much as create a bond, of sorts, between the 2 of you. A way for you to peer into his mind, but also a way for him to peer into your mind, maybe even attempt to control you. I say attempt because, currently, even at your weakest you shouldn't have any trouble keeping him out. Now, he may not know of this backdoor, so to speak, between your minds but if you attempt to enter, or even get close to that Dark Castle as you called it, that is in your mindscape he'll find out about the connection. Please trust me when I say that, for now, it would be best if you put up the strongest mental shields that you can around the Castle and leave at that for the time being."

"So you're saying that as long as I put up these mental shields I can search for my spirit animal and what? Let a bridge between mine and Riddle's mind exist?" Harry closed his eyes to think about the situation "You said _"for the time being"_ does that mean you want, no expect me to destroy it at some point?"

"Oh, yes! Most definitely! If it were up to us we would have destroyed it for you when you first arrived here. Hell, I had to keep reminding Tina how much trouble all three of us would be in if we interfered with it."

"So then when exactly would it be ok to destroy said bridge?"

"Weeell, you must first, and this is very important Harry, realize what the true form of that 'bridge' is; without us telling you obviously. That's pretty much it. As soon as you find out what it is you're free to remove it from you. Until then I'm afraid you're better of being stuck with it." Maggie said before intentionally mumbling loud enough so Harry could hear him "Those Fates are not to be crossed."

Getting the hind Harry accepted Maggie's reasons and advice.

"So then can I start looking for my inner animal now?"

"That's fine but a word of advice Harry; look through every inch of the forest before going elsewhere." Tina spoke up

"Why? The voice I heard came from those caves."

Neither Tina nor Maggie answered him. Instead they were giving him that look that said figure it out on your own.

Sighing, Harry sat down on the grass and entered his mindscape.

**Mindscape**

Harry found himself in his mindscape, close to the Dark Castle and, unless his memory was messing with him, he was at the same place he was when he was forcefully brought out of his mindscape last time, all those decades ago. Since he was already here Harry decided to start with putting up the strongest mental shield he could. And then repeat the process several over, creating several gigantic bubbles surrounding the Castle, including underneath the ground. Satisfied with that, he turned, following Tina's advice, towards the forest; thanks to his increased control he was able to merely take a step forward to cover all the space between his previous location and the beginnings of the forest.

He walked in, eyes peeled and ears open, looking for something, anything to give him a sign to follow. The fact that while the last time he was here was midday while now could very well by midnight with how dark everything was, didn't phase him. Harry doubted that mindscapes had a concept of day and night, or time, for that matter. No, the change probably came from his training of Tina's Darkness Domain, not that the dark scared or even bothered him, he had long since been accustomed to it, even before meeting Tina and Maggie, he was comfortable in the dark. The years in the broom closet under the stairs made sure of that.

So he wondered around, slowly, waiting for something to either break the silence or move close enough that he could see the movement. And he wondered. And he wondered. Harry was getting impatient when suddenly

"**Ack-ack-ack-ackawoooo"**

Harry heard a guttural barking from a fair distance at his right, towards the central-ish part of the forest. He didn't hesitate, Harry run full speed towards the barking, hoping he could at least get close enough to see the animal. No such luck though after a few seconds the barking stopped. Harry continued towards where he last heard the sound, though he slowed down in the process. He kept walking until he heard the sound of running water.

"_I'm such an idiot! I should have started from that river!"_ Harry thought, before walking towards what he assumed was the river he had seen last time he was there. Harry came upon a creek, whether it was the same as the one from before he didn't know and didn't particularly cared. Harry decided to walk upstream, already knowing that downstream would eventually lead him to the lake, so on and on he went. Harry had reached a place he was familiar with; the same place he had originally found the creek the first and only other time he entered his mindscape, when he tensed, he could feel the same innocent, curious and playful presence he felt before. Looking around, he tried to locate it, hoping it wouldn't run this time, it didn't, but it also didn't give him any indication as to its location.

"_What does it waiting for?"_ Harry couldn't understand why it was purposely staying close enough for him to know it's there but far enough to not be seen. Then it hit him. The presence was playing; it was actually playing _hide&seek_. Harry groaned.

"_Perfect! Just what I need. A trickster, as if the twins weren't enough. Wait. What does that say about me?"_ Harry thought.

"**Ackawoo"** came the bark again. This time coming diagonally from the front and to Harry's left. Only this bark sounded, at least to Harry's ears, disapproving. He bolted towards the sound and was barely able to see movement up ahead. Activating his _Night Glasses_ already in night vision mode he finally saw the retreating figure of the animal. It was a fox, a black as night fox by the looks of it. Harry kept running after it when suddenly it jumped over some bushes, but when Harry passed the bushes however the fox was gone.

"_What the? Where did it go?"_ Harry wondered, he could feel the presence near, the fox hadn't left, but he couldn't find it.

"_Wait a second."_ Harry thought, turning around.

There it was, just under the bushes, looking straight at him with a smile that just screamed "haha, you fell for it" and even though its eyelids were almost completely shut from that smile the same piercing emerald as his own eyes shined through.

Harry couldn't help it, he laughed. His inner animal certainly had a better way of expressing its, no their humor that Harry did. Sure he had thought of a few pranks before but he almost never acted on them.

"_Hmm, one of the many things that will change moving forwards" _Harry thought as he walked closer to the fox at the same time it moved closer to him.

They met in the middle in the middle Harry dropping to his knees while the fox jump up at him. When he caught the fox in his arms it was like the first time he had touched his wand, back at Ollivanders, like finally finding something you didn't know was missing from your life. They stayed like that Harry petting the fox and the fox purring and making itself comfortable in his arms.


	16. Chapter 16

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or anything else in this story. Harry Potter and his beautiful world belongs to the amazing J.K. Rowling. I do not make any money off of this story.

1111111111111111111111111111111111111

"speak"

"_thoughts_"

"spells"

§…parseltongue talk …§

_§…parseltongue__ thought__…§_

1111111111111111111111111111111111111

_When he caught the fox in his arms it was like the first time he had touched his wand, back at Ollivanders, like finally finding something you didn't know was missing from your life. They stayed like that Harry petting the fox and the fox purring and making itself comfortable in his arms._

CHAPTER 16

Eventually the fox fell asleep in Harry's arms. He didn't mind thought, not one bit. He did shift around though, to get comfortable himself as he gazed up at the night sky, only now, and with his _Night Glasses_ still active did he noticed that beyond the trees was the a night sky with thousands upon thousands of small, bright stars.

"_I wonder if this is what the night sky looks like without light pollution from all the artificial lights. If that's the case and knowing Tina it probably was, then I definitely need to find a place where I can look up to the night sky and see this in the mortal world."_ Harry thought.

Some time later, whether it was minutes or hours Harry couldn't say, the fox woke up. After some more petting, the fox purring and licking his face, it jump out of Harry's arms trotting away.

"Hey, wait! Where are you going?" Harry asked, not liking the lack of the fox's weight on his arms, having already gotten used familiar with it, regardless of how little time the fox spend there.

Speaking of the fox, it stopped moving and turned to look at him, when Harry didn't make a move to get up the fox returned and started playfully biting and trying to drag him somewhere.

"Ouch! Ok, ok I get the message, I'm coming."

"**Ackawoo"** came the fox's bark, this one sounding impatient.

"Jeez, how can 5 letters have so much range." Harry wondered, only to get a significantly less playful bite in his leg. Gritting his teeth Harry spoke.

"So, where are we going?"

The fox didn't acknowledged the question in any way, instead it started trotting towards the direction it was originally going, before it had to stop to wait for its human to get of his ass and follow it.

They kept walking, trotting in the fox's case, in silence until they reached a place Harry recognized; they were in front of the caves.

"You want me to go in there? Find the voice from before?" Harry asked the fox, only for the fox to suddenly give him that smile again and rush towards to the tunnel left of the middle one.

"_Son of a…"_ Harry started, before quickly following after his pranking inner animal.

Having never deactivated his _Night Glasses_ Harry was able to catch up to the fox, though he had a feeling it let him. After some healthy hurried walking, in Harry's case, the fox was full on running, they arrived at a place he wasn't expecting to find, at least not here.

Before him was the Chamber of Secrets. Sure it was definitely a replica, a cleaner one, without water flowing from somewhere all over the place, but the Chamber nonetheless. Harry had an inkling as to where this was going, especially when combined with the voice he had heard before. And speaking of the voice,

§…Ssssso isss it fiiinally time now? § it asked.

§ Iii thiiink ssso. Though Iii am nnnot sssure how thiiisss isss possssible § answered Harry

A snake came forward from the other side of the Chamber. But it wasn't the 1000 year old, monstrously big snake Harry expected. No this one may have been on the bigger side as far as snakes went, at least to Harry's limited knowledge, but it wasn't as big as the basilisk Harry and Neville fought in the Chamber. Though for all he knew the whole lethal eyesight and venom could still be on the table.

§ Nnnow, you'rrre jussst being uuunresssonable § came the snake's voice.

§ Iii don't knnnow aaabout thaaat. My tttrack reecord isssn't exxxactly reassssuring § Harry talked back

§ Hhhaaahhh, I sssuppossse thaaat'sss fair. Essspecialy consssidering thaaat yyou'rre half rrright §

§ Exxxplain § Harry said

§ Yyyou sssee wwwhen ttthe basssilisk's fang pppierced yyyour arm, iiit'sss vvvenom didn't jjjussst poisssoned yyyou, it entered yyyourr sssyssstem aaand began ttto dessstroy iiit fffrom wwwithin. But wwwhen ttthat fffrrried ccchicccken'sss tearsss hhheallled yyyou, ttthey aaalssso entered yyyour sssyssstem. Ttthe rrresssult being that wwwhile yyyou appppearrred to hhhave been hhhealed, yyyourrr body wasss in fact contiiinuosssly being bbrokkenn ddown oonlyy to be hhealed up from the ttearsss. Thisss cycllle continued uuntill the magic inside both vvenom and the tears wasss commmpletely absssorbed by yyou. In doing ssso you gained both the basssilisssk'sss venom and form, though it would be a fform basssed on your aaage and magic, asss you get ooolder ssso will your fform become bigger. You alssso gainned the chicken'sss tears and form, but for thossse you'll have to find it before you can learn to use them. Any quessstionsss? §

"_Any questions?! Where do I even started!?" _Harry thought.

§ How isss thisss posssible? If it wasss sssomething asss sssimple asss being bitten and then cried upon then sssomeone, ssomewhere would have known that sssuch a thing wasss posssssible? §

§ Yesss, they ssshould have. Wwhat wassss the difference beeetween you and everyone else back when you ggott bitten? § the snake asked, already knowing the answer but wanting Harry to figure it out on his own.

" _Back then? There wasn't anything… Wait! There was but it still doesn't make sense."_

§ My mother's protection § answered Harry.

§ Inndeed §

§ But that doesssn't make sssenssse. Mom's protection ssshould have only worked on Riddle §

§ Yesss and no. The pprotection works on anything that has Ridddle'sss magic on it. The basssilisssk was full of Riddle'sss magic att the tiiime ssso the protection worked on it'sss venom, ssso the protection kept you alive untiil the chicken reeeached you and ccriied for and in you. §

§… What would have happened if Fawkes hadn't reached me in time? § Harry asked not sure he wanted to know the answer.

§ Nnothiiing. The protection would have kept you aliiive while the venom kept dessstroying you. At sssome point one of them would have reached it'sss limits. Iif the venom'sss magic diied out before the protection's then the protection would have been ssseverly weakened. If the venom persssisted after the protection's magic ran out, you would have died. If they cancel each other out then you would have fallen into a coma. None of that matter however for the did not happened. Inssstead, thanksss to the chicken'sss tearsss continuousssly healing you, your mother'sss protection focusssed on asssssiiimiiilatiiing the propertiesss of both the venom and the tearsss, alssso gaining their ressspective forms with it. Underssstand, that you only gained the venom and tearsss; the formsss were an added bonusss. You have no accessss to their other abilities. Not to the basssilisssk'sss magic resssissstance nor the chicken'sss rebirthing ability. §

§ I sssee. But… how do you know all that? I mean aren't basssically the basssilisk'sss form? How could you know all that if you only practically appeared…I don't know the last month? §

_§ It appearsss he ssstill doesss not underssstand §_ thought the basilisk.

§ You will know in time. For now go back to the foressst and get to know Fox better. You will need to ssspend time with each of usss individually first. Learn what we like, what triggersss uss so that you'll underssstand what it will take for you to change into each of usss.§

§ You named fox Fox? § Harry asked incredulously.

The basilisk gave what Harry guessed was the reptilian approximation of a shrug.

§ It'sss sssimple and easssy to remember. I am Sssnake and chicken is HFC. What do you have sssomething better? Sssomething Marauder like? That isss why you were ssso adamant to become an animagusss isss it not? §

§ … No, I don't have namesss like that yet. But I'll find sssomething better than Fox or Sssnake. What'sss HFC ssstand for anyway?§

Hearing the question both animals started laughing in their own way. The sounds sounded weird in Harry's mind but he made sure to fill them away, in his mind, so that he could know later when they inevitably laugh at him.

§ Well? § he asked again when the laughter subsided.

§ HFC… ssstands… for… Harry's Fried Chicken § said the basilisk between what harry assumed were giggles.

.

.

.

.

§ Damn, that wasss a good one § Harry admitted, chuckling himself.

§ I know. Fox'sss idea, but I find it quite fitting. Now go. Get to know Fox. Then come back here, I asssume you figured out where HFC is? §

§ Yeah, I think I do. Sssee you sssoon. § Harry said, turning around to leave and follow Snake's advice.

Walking out of the cave, with the temporarily named Fox beside him, Harry walked back to the forest.

The more Harry learn about Fox the more he came to realize that the animals were seriously misinterpreted. Oh, sure they were definitely tricksters. But they were also teachers, providing guidance on swiftly finding your way around obstacles, instead of facing them head on. Something Harry could have used more of throughout the years, both in Hogwarts and with the Dursleys. Also Fox's adaptability and quick thinking were remarkable, to the point where Harry was suspecting Fox was using his Elemental properties and abilities. And it was cunning sure, not simply for all the tricks it pulled on him, but also because it takes a certain amount of cunning, the ability to find your way around, see through all kinds of traps and swift decision making to break in and out of places without getting caught. A fun fact he learned was that those ears weren't just for show, according to Harry's calculations Fox had amazing hearing. He could hear the smallest of sounds from a little over 35 meters away. Harry had a feeling it would be very disorienting when he tried that.

All in all it was a fun experience for both Harry and Fox. Though he still couldn't find a Marauder-worthy name for the fox, he most certainly wasn't going to call it Foxy. In the end he decided to call him Scout, focusing mostly on the whole 'breaking in and out of places undetected'. Thankfully Scout liked it so Harry didn't have to brainstorm more on it. Another thing Harry realized was that even though Scout couldn't speak, they were still able to communicate with each other in some way Harry couldn't really explain.

So, when Scout communicated that they were ready and that Harry should go see Snake, he obliged. Harry left the forest and went into the caves to reach the Chamber replica.

§ Ssso, you have returned. Are you ready to begin? §

§ Yess, I am ready. §

**Some time later**

§ That wasss fun. § came the voice of Snake.

§ Ssspeak for yourssself you damn sssadissst.§ was Harry's grumbled response.

§ I wasss. Who did you think I wasss talking about? You? Pleassse. Even your ssself-absssorbness ssshould have itsss limitsss. § was Snake's reply, while it, inwardly laughed at the absurdness of its statement, even if the human hadn't realized it yet.

Harry sighed, in all honesty he should have expected that.

§ Ssstil, I sssuppossse your right. It wasss a fun, learning to change into you and to secrete and control the lethality of the venom. Thanks Basil! §

Another thing that happened was that Harry named the snake Basil. Not very original but still better than Snake, at least as far as Harry was concerned.

§ Ssso, are you going to the chicken now? § Basil asked.

§ Yeah, I want to go meet him. It's been ssso long sssince I returned here yet I haven't gone to sssee him once. He'sss probably pissssed.§

§ Change that probably to definitely. You ssshould let him burn you sssome to let of sssome sssteam. § was Basil's helpful advise.

§ Sssomehow I don't think your joking. Huuuh, might asss well get it over with. §

Harry walked out of the cave and flew through the forest, towards the mountains.

As he reached halfway up the mountain he slowed down, remembering that last time he couldn't fly much higher than that. This time however there wasn't anything keeping him from flying through the clouds, reaching the top. There at the tallest peak a fire burned brightly, seeing that Harry flew over. Arriving at the summit of the mountain he touched down, walking slowly towards the fire, unsure of what to do, or say. Thinking quickly he spoke.

"Umm, hey there, I understand you don't like your name-" before he could go any further an angry trill sounded out. Next think Harry knew he was being scratched and bitten, or was it beaked, Harry wasn't sure his hands already up, covering his head.

"Wait! Wait! I was going to ask you if you wanted me to give you a new name!" he yelled out.

The assault stopped and Harry could finally look at the majestic bird. Said bird was looking at him with a mixture of anger, indignation, hopefulness and a little excitement.

"Hello there. How are you? I'm sorry for taking this long to come to you. The other two were a handful. " Harry said, hoping he could appease the bird of fire with that.

The bird just let out a trill that for some reason harry associated with grudging acceptance.

"_All in all that could have gone worst."_ Harry thought. Only for the phoenix to trill in agreement.

"Riiight. So, a name let's see here. How about… Heat?"

An denying trill came in response.

"Then… Ray? From radiance?"

The same denying trill sounded.

"Hmmm, then how about … Eos, it means dawn in Ancient Greek." Harry said, thankful Tina had taught him some ancient languages.

A happy, excited trill came this time.

"Well, I think we have a winner, don't we, Eos?"

The newly named Eos responded with more happy trills. Harry smiled as he raised his hand for Eos to land on it. Both eager to get to know each other.

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**Magnus' realm**

It had been half a year since Harry had entered his mindscape. Maggie and Tina were doing what any two self-respecting immortals would do to kill time; play cards; or chess or backgammon all kinds of board games really.

"I wonder how long it will take him to realize why we focused on specific lessons" Maggie said.

"What, like your Wind's _Clear Mind _and_ Focus_, Water's _Purifying_, Fire's _Regeneration_, Earth's _Stability_ and Spirit's _Mind Reading, Shielding, Download, Knowledge Replication, Memory Reading, Memory Manipulation_? Oh, and _Intuitive Aptitude_?"

"Or your Darkness Domain's _Storage_, Death Domain's _Magic Drain_, Shadow Domain's _Travel_ and _Form_?"

"Touché." Tina answered.

"Still, much longer do you think he'll need?" Tina asked

"I'm not sure. It depends how far he's willing to go. True animagus is different than what it has devolved to. Hell, magicals these days think that to become animagus you must have mastery of transfiguration! I mean can you imagine?"

Tina merely chuckled. Magnus always got worked up whenever someone mention how far behind the mortals had fallen in terms of magic.

"How about a bet then?" she asked, trying to change the topic.

Maggie realized what she was doing and went with it.

"Sure what did you have in mind?"

"The graduation test."

"What about it?"

"If I win am going to have him unite my Hallows. Now before you say anything, I want him just to unite them, **not** unlock them. since I can't talk to him about them, you'll have to give him enough clues so he doesn't unlock all of them. Hell, he's strong enough now that he doesn't really need them. I just want him to collect them and return them to me. It is high time I end the trial." Tina explained.

"That's fine, I guess. But what about me? I don't have a graduation exam planned. I was going to have him fuse his metamorphosis with each individual Element in order to turn into the Elements, well except for Spirit that one is dangerous to turn into. But he has already pretty much master that on his own. I don't have anything else to make an exam of; damn kid is like a sponge, he absorbed everything I threw at him."

"I know. I was there. He did the same with what I taught him. Hmm, maybe if you have him fuse Elemental Manipulations? Like fuse Water and Fire Manipulations into Steam Manipulation."

"Hmmm, you know what that actually sounds good. Thanks! I didn't expect that from you. Is the kid rubbing of on you?"

"What! How dare you! I'm perfectly capable coming up with good ideas on my own!" Tina yelled.

"By the way… Four of a kind, I win." Maggie said revealing his cards to by 4 aces and a queen of spades.

"WHAT!"

**Harry's mindscape**

It took a long time but Harry was able to learn a lot. Apparently calling them inner animals was a bit of a misnomer. They were more like pieces of himself. Created as representations of different aspects and/or abilities of himself; in reality all of them were Harry. It took some time for that particular inspiration to hit; and more time still to accept it. But he had and he had grown stronger for it. Heck, he was even able to transform into a form that was a mix of all 3 of his animal sides.

With all that finished he felt ready to leave. So, surrounded by the 3 different yet similar sides of himself, he closed his eyes, willing himself to return to Maggie's realm.

Opening his eyes, Harry found himself found himself at sitting on the grass in Maggie's realm.

"Hah! I won this one Maggie!" exclaimed Tina

Sighing Harry stood up and, walking over to his two godly teachers, asked.

"What did you two bet on this time? How long it would take me to finish?"

"Wow, how'd you know that? Did you divinated?" Maggie asked, honestly impressed, and a little hopeful the kid finally gotten a handle in Air's _Divination_.

"Nah, you two are just that predictable." answered Harry dismissively. He knew why Maggie was looking hopeful but Harry honestly could not care about _Divination_ at all.

"So, what did you win this time Tina?" he asked

"Oh, you know just the right to decided your graduation exam." she said with an air of casualness.

"…My what?" Harry couldn't help but ask.

"You didn't seriously thing we wouldn't give you a graduation exam did you?" Maggie said throwing his 2 cents in.

"Yeah, I kinda did actually."

"Oh, don't worry Harry you don't have to actually stay here to do the exam."

"Huh? How does that work."

"It's simple really. Your graduation exam is to locate and unite my Hallows. Please note I said locate and unite **not** unlock. Sure you can unlock them if you want but it's not necessary."

"Oh, I see. You just want me to search the world over for an almost indistinguishable stone and a wand that could also practical be anywhere in the world?"

"Yes, that's right."

"Are you kidding me?"

"Nope, not at all."

"How the hell am I going to find them? I don't even know where to start!"

"Oh, relax, it's not like I'm giving you a time limit. Well there is time limit but you don't have to worry about needing overtime since the time limit is your death." Tina explained.

"Huh?"

"Basically, kid, you have to find the other two Hallows before you die." supplemented Maggie.

"Oh… gotta admit that does sound pretty lax. Not that I'm complaining."

"Heh, thought so." Said Tina

"So kid, it's high time you left. You've spend 66 years here. That roughly translates to 1.5 month. You have about as much time to get used to being a 12 year old again." Maggie said with a grin that made Harry want to punch it out of his face.

"You probably won't see us again for a while, at least by your standards, so have a nice, long and exciting life Harry. You deserve it!" said Tina.

It was during her speech that Harry realized his surrounds were disappearing.

"Yeah, kid, go have fun. Kill an idiot and break as many … let's say hearts, along the way." Maggie said with a grin.

"Maggie!"

Harry barely heard Tina's reprimand before he started falling into the abyss that appeared below him. They didn't even give him the time to express his gratitude for everything they had done for him. Not that he had any idea of how to properly do so.


	17. Chapter 17

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or anything else in this story. Harry Potter and his beautiful world belongs to the amazing J.K. Rowling. I do not make any money off of this story.

1111111111111111111111111111111111111

"speak"

"_thoughts_"

"spells"

§…parseltongue talk …§

_§…parseltongue__ thought__…§_

1111111111111111111111111111111111111

_Harry barely heard Tina's reprimand before he started falling into the abyss that appeared below him. They didn't even give him the time to express his gratitude for everything they had done for him. Not that he had any idea of how to properly do so._

1111111111111111111111111111111111111

CHAPTER 17

Harry gradually regained consciousness. The first sense that returned to him was the sense of smell, though that hardly helped him because there wasn't any particular smell around the room. Next came the sense of hearing, that one proved somewhat useful as he could hear banging and yelling close by. Someone was banging a wall screaming

"Come on! Why won't you open up! Why can't I enter! Great Harry Potter sir is in trouble! He needs my help! Open! Open!"

That voice sounded familiar. It took Harry a bit to associate the voice with the little creature that in all its wisdom tried to expel or kill him in its effort to save him. By the time Harry realized it was Dobby that was outside the door to the ritual room the rest of his sense returned to him.

Groaning, Harry stood up, stretched, allowing his bones to crack in to place. For all their talk about how his body would be in stasis, it didn't seem to count when it came to soreness and stiff muscles. Meanwhile, Dobby was still banging the door and yelling at it; deciding enough was enough, Harry yelled out.

"Dobby! I'm fine! Am coming out now!"

Before either had time to do or say anything else, a deep growling came from Harry's stomach.

"…"

"…"

"Hey Dobby, if you could bring me some food that be great."

"Yes! Great M…Harry Potter sir! Right away Great Harry Potter sir!"

"_Well, I guess I will be having __that __conversation sooner than I thought." _thought Harry.

.

.

.

.

.

"_Boy, it's going to be hard to get used to not having my thoughts answered or discussed about." _

Sighing, Harry walked out of the ritual room and back to the common room, where a small feast awaited him at the big table, with Dobby nearby who was sporting a half apologetic half happy smile.

"Thank you Dobby, it looks delicious. Would you care to sit with me and have some as well?"

"I could never! This is all for M… the great Harry Potter sir!" said Dobby his smile turning more towards to a mix of forced and resigned one.

Once again sighing, Harry sat at the table preparing to pull a Ron and inhale every edible thing on the table. Just before he began, Harry turned to Dobby and said:

"I know you bonded to me when Lucius Malfoy tried to curse me. I don't mind. You actually saved my life by doing so. I know you are very limited with what magic you can use when you aren't bonded to a witch or wizard. In fact I had been thinking of asking you to come work for me. Salary and all. I'm actually still going to pay you and give you off days. But before we come to an agreement, let me stuff my face first, ok?"

Dobby's eyes started watering before he broke out crying about the greatness that is Harry Potter. For his part Harry decided to ignore him in favor of the feast in front of him.

An hour and a half later Harry was finally full. In all honesty he would have been full 20 minutes in, but he used Earth's _Harvest_ and _Growth _to not only deal with his slight malnutrition problem, and maybe gain some slight muscles, but all to gain a few extra inches. Let it be known that no matter what he said, Harry Potter would definitely not mind getting a bit taller. To be in peak physical condition, for an almost 13 year old, lets go with that.

"So Dobby, what's the date? And how long have you been trying to get inside that room? And how long have you been inside the suitcase?"

"Well, it's July the 29th, great master, Harry Potter sir. I've been trying to get inside that room for the last 3 weeks, great master, Harry Potter sir. I entered the suitcase 3 weeks ago great master, Harry Potter sir. I have been trying to enter the room since you didn't come out after a day inside great m-"

"Dobby! Just Harry is fine. No need for the rest."

"B-b-but great m-"

"Dobby?"

"Yes! Harry Potter sir! I understand."

Harry sighed, knowing that was the best he could hope for. Thinking through the facts that he quickly he asked

"So, in all the time you've been here did you tell anyone that I was stuck in a room for almost a month?"

"No! Harry Potter sir! I would never betray your secrets!"

Frowning Harry continued his questions

"How did you know I wanted to keep all this-" Harry gestured around the suitcase- "a secret?"

"Both times I was about to call for help your owl attacked me, Harry Potter sir. The only time I had contacted the outside world was when letters came for you, and your owl was insisted that I answer back, without raising suspicion, Harry Potter sir. Except a letter that came two days ago, I was getting desperate and didn't realize it had arrived until an hour and a half ago, Harry Potter sir." Answered Dobby immediately, though towards the end he lowered his head, his ears flopping down, looking miserable.

Harry, realizing what was about to happen, quickly spoke.

"Dobby! I forbid you to punish yourself or allow anyone other than myself to punish you!"

Dobby, who was just about to do exactly that, stopped, but before he could speak up, Harry continued.

"By the way, you wouldn't happen to have the letters I've been, and hopefully copies of 'my' replies, do you?"

"Oh, yes! Harry Potter sir! I have both right here!" Dobby said, snapping his fingers and materializing two small stacks of letters on the cleaned up desk.

"The left one is the letters you were send and the right one is the ones I answered for you, Harry Potter sir."

"Brilliant. I'll need to catch with them, I'm assuming the letter you haven't responded to is in the stack?"

"Yes, Harry Potter sir. I've put both stacks in chronological order, from the oldest to the most recent."

"Great job Dobby. Please let me read them before we continued our previous conversation."

**An hour later**

"_Well, all things considered, Dobby's answers could have been a lot worse. I don't think Ron realized anything, Neville might have, but Hermione definitely did. Let's hope she hasn't told anyone. I better write her, tell her I'm fine and that… screw it Dobby was writing those letters because… I was busy…with the chores my relatives threw on me. It's weak but hopefully she won't ask a lot of questions. And Neville; he actually invited me to a shared birthday party. I'll be definitely going, it's a shame Ron and the rest of the Weasley's will miss it, but then again they're in Egypt so I can't really blame them. I'll ask him to invite Hermione too. Better speak to her in person and knowing Neville he'll be too self-conscious to ask her on his own. Alright, let's send those letters."_

Having send the necessary letters with Hedwig, who looked excited to finally have a chance to fly, after almost a month; apparently she hadn't left the suitcase since Harry had entered the ritual room. The emerald eyed wizard stretched again before walking out of the suitcase. Craving a walk, and possibly brainstorm for Neville's gift, he only had like 2 days to figure something out. No pressure, right?

Walking out of his room, Harry heard voices coming from the kitchen, changing his direction, he walked towards the kitchen. As he approached the two voices he heard were getting clearer.

"… but are we supposed to do now?" a grave, serious voice spoke

"_That's Dudley's voice, wonder what has him so worked up?"_

"There isn't anything we **can** do Dudders, your father had apparently been fired for months! For money laundering! There is a hunt for him going on from the authorities. I can't believe he was making deals, laundering money for an international criminal organization! He was working for a drill company for goodness sake! And then! He just left us hanging, leaving the country with his secretary! He may have known I knew about her but! I mean, honestly! How low could he fall? Even if he didn't care about me I still had a son here!" Petunia said, clearly she had been holding a lot back for years.

"Umm, hey, I understand this is a bad time and I wasn't trying to eavesdrop but, what the hell? It's been less than a month. How did all that happened in less than 4 weeks?" came Harry's voice from the entrance to the kitchen, surprising the mother and son duo inside.

"Wha… Who'r… Harry? What are you doing here? Didn't you leave weeks ago?" was Dudley's reaction. As for Petunia she was more composed, having entered his bedroom and seen Lily's suitcase still there.

"So, you finally decided to come out. As you heard, my husband decided that screwing his secretary wasn't enough so he decided to screw us over too." her dry tone expressing her displeasure.

"Husband? You still call him that after everything you just said he's done?"

"I don't have a choice. It takes two for a divorce, not that I would divorce him. As long as we are married, the three of us" - she said gesturing to the 3 in the kitchen, including Harry,- " can still live in this house, Dudley's school has been paid for, for all the remaining years and my son apparently get's a monthly stipend from the bank, as long as he is Dudley Dursley that is. So my hands are pretty much tied at this point. Then again the stipend is barely enough for one person to leave off of, let alone three." Petunia explained.

"Hmm, if the two of you are willing to accept my help we won't have to worry about food, clean clothes, clean house and clean garden. But I can't do anything about getting new things."

Petunia raised an eyebrow. "I know for a fact that you can't use… that away from your school, so how can you do all that?"

"Well technically I won't be doing anything, my friend," – cue gasp from somewhere- "however will be more than happy to help out, as long as you don't abuse him in the slightest."

Both Petunia and Dudley were looking around, trying to find where the gasp originated, when Petunia suddenly remembered a discussion she had overheard between her sister and that insufferable boy. Turning towards Harry she asked "You have one of those… whats-you-call-them… house something?"

"They are called house elves. And yes I am bonded to one. Try not to freak out, I'll call him now. Dobby!"

A 'pop' sounded before a small, weird, excited creature appeared in front of Harry. "Yes Master Harry Potter sir? What can Dobby do for you?"

Eyebrow twitching Harry ignored the expressions of his aunt and cousin, focusing instead at Dobby.

"What did we say about how you are supposed to call me?"

"Ummm, Harry Potter sir?"

"So, why did you also call me master?"

"But, Harry Potter sir. There are other people around. It may be ok when there isn't anyone else around but when you are in company I must act as is expected of an elf belonging to an Most Ancient and Noble House. Sir."

Knowing that Dobby was right, if only partially, Harry spoke.

"That may be true in some occasions, but this isn't one of them."

"Oh, I didn't know that, please forgive me Harry Potter sir." said the house elf, his ears drooping just as his eyes closed and his body tensed, obviously expecting a beating.

Sighing Harry waved him of "It's fine I imagine it's not something that came up while you were slaving away at the Malfoys. Now I'm sure you heard what was being said, are you willing to help out here? By cooking, washing and cleaning? While making sure you aren't seen?"

"Of course Harry Potter sir! Leave it to me Harry Pooter sir! You won't be disappointed Har"-

"You don't have to say my name in every sentence Dobby.

-" Yes Harry Potter sir! I understand Harry Potter sir!"

His eyebrow twitching, Harry turned to the other occupants of the room. Petunia was looking resigned while Dudley was snickering, probable thanks to the comedy rooting Harry and Dobby unwittingly put up.

"So… I'm guessing you guys are ok with that?"

Sighing, even though she didn't like it, Petunia knew it would be near impossible to live in a semblance of how they were used to before without the help her nephew offered, so she could only answer "I suppose we don't really have a choice."

Harry mentally smirked, hopefully being introduced to and getting accustomed to some harmless, useful magic would be a good enough experience for Dudley so that he won't end up with the same hatred his mother had for magic. Especially considering the very real possibility of his children being magical.

Harry was sitting in the swings at the playground, having finished his conversation with his aunt and cousin and taken his walk, still having no idea about what to gift Neville, something to do with Herbology sure, but seeing that Harry wasn't the best with it, heck he was average in Herbology at best, he had no actual idea about the gift.

"_Ok, think this is Neville we're talking about, I know he has his own greenhouses at his home, so there is no way he hasn't already gotten, at least, all plants from the lessons of the last two years and possibly the ones we'll learn this year. So all of those are out of the question. Hmm, maybe something from 4__th__ or 5__th__ year? Or something else entirely? He did wrote to me that his aunt was very pleased with his actions at the Chamber and that she even bought him a new wand after he blew up his with that ridiculously overpowered _Lumos Maxima. _So maybe a wand holster? Speaking of that's definitely something I want to have for myself. Hah…decisions decisions."_

After a while of going around in his head in circles he decided to go back to the house, accepting that he wouldn't find the answer today. As he was leaving, he failed to notice a big dog looking at him from a fair distance away, from the other side of the playground.

It was late the next day, his last day, before he had to go Neville's for their combined birthday party that Harry finally found what he figured was a good present, at least considering his limited time, scrounging around at his mother's potion workshop Harry found a box with seeds with the label writing 'Chinese Chomping Cabbage' apparently that was an O.W.L. year material they would cover in Herbology, hopefully Neville hadn't already had some of those. Asking Dobby to gift wrap the box of seeds, after Harry removed the label, the wizard looked to the table, upon which a toy broom was floating. When Harry asked for directions to Neville's home he was answered with that broom saying it was an one-way portkey.

"_Well, at least I won't get lost."_ Harry thought, before going through his nightly routine. Laying down on his double bed, in the suitcase obviously, Harry's lasts thoughts before sleep claimed him were:

"_I get the feeling tomorrow will be an interested day; though with my luck it will probably be the bad kind."_


	18. Chapter 18

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or anything else in this story. Harry Potter and his beautiful world belongs to the amazing J.K. Rowling. I do not make any money off of this story.

1111111111111111111111111111111111111

"speak"

"_thoughts_"

"spells"

§…parseltongue talk …§

_§…parseltongue__ thought__…§_

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CHAPTER 18

Dressed up and ready for his first, actual, birthday party, Harry waited for the appointed time for the portkey's activation. Neville's gift was wrapped up and within one of his dress robes' – taken from his father's collection- pocket, which already had an _Undetectable Extension Charm_. Thankfully Harry's use of Earth's _Growth_ allowed him to fill out the robes that were previously to large for him.

"_Finally."_ he thought, seconds before the portkey activated. Regardless of his mental age, Harry was excited to, at long last, experience a birthday party, he wasn't, in the least, bothered it was a shared one. "_After all you couldn't really expect a god, or two for that matter, to comprehend the importance of birthday."_ Harry finished his thought as he felt what he could only describe as like having a hook "somewhere behind the navel" pull him to another location. Through a mix of his _Spatial Sense_ and _Intuitive Aptitude_ he got the general idea of how portkeys worked; they apparently work by creating a spatial corridor where whoever is touching one, when met with predetermined conditions, is forcefully pulled to whichever place the other side of the spatial corridor was located. At least that was all he could figure out, before going through various unpleasant sensations, only to find himself face down, spread-eagled, on a smooth, lightly cool, marble floor.

Harry groaned as he pulled himself up, hearing a poorly stifled chuckle. Looking up and around he realized he was in a relatively big room, with a few armchairs and a sofa, as well as a fireplace, with none other than Neville by the door, with a smile on his face. Clearly the one the chuckle came from. Before Harry could comment, Neville spoke.

"Welcome to Longbottom Hall Harry, I hope you enjoyed your travel over." his smile still prominent on his face.

"I am _so_ getting you back for that Nev. Seriously is there a magical way of travel that doesn't involve being swallowed by flames, only to continuously spin around and around until you're spit out of a fireplace? Or, apparently, be hooked from your stomach and pulled through god knows what?" Harry grumbled, only to smile soon after. He was afraid his friend would fall back to his timid ways throughout the summer; obviously that didn't happen and Harry was happy about it. It had taken a lot for Neville to come out of his shell but apparently, hopefully, it was for keeps.

"If you think the floo and portkeys are uncomfortable then you really shouldn't look forward to Apparating, or magic forbid, Side-along Apparating. Gran took me side-along apparating a few weeks ago. It was _not_ fun." Neville said with his body giving a slight shake.

"That bad?"

"Worse."

Audibly gulping, Harry decided to do the mature thing and… worry about that latter. Like really, really later.

Instead he walked over to Neville and offer his hand, with the latter grasping it.

"Right. Well. Happy birthday Neville."

"Happy birthday yourself Harry. Come, my Gran wants to meet you, Ms. Bones too. Don't worry I didn't really tell them anything about last year. I just told Gran that my wand blew up, while helping you with a big snake. She refused to take me to buy one until I told her something."

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

"Please tell me you didn't use those exact words."

"Huh? Why? They were vague enough."

"Too vague Nev. They were far too vague."

"What do you-"

"Never mind. Who's Ms. Bones anyway?"

"Ms. Bones is Susan Bones' Aunt. She raised Susan since her parents –Ms. Bones' brother and sister-in-law – died during the war. She's actually the Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. DMLE for short. I guess Susan must have told her at least some of the things that happened last year."

"That's right. You did say you grew up with Bones, didn't you? And another girl if I'm not mistaken?" Harry asked with a sly smile.

"Hmm? Yeah, Susan's home is near here so I guess we did spend some time, with Susan first and then later with Hannah as well, together growing up."

Looking behind Neville towards what Harry knew to be the living room, though it was at least twice the size of the entire #4 Privet Drive. Harry had already seen this place in a few of his parents' memories, so he wasn't surprised, he did however notice the few other people already there; and judging by their expressions they heard at least the last part of their conversation.

Specifically Susan Bones' one of their yearmates but in a different House as well as Hannah Abbott', also a yearmate and in a different House. Both were in Hufflepuff and best friends. Hermione was also there, looking at him with a calculating look, which was significantly lessened by the smile that was threatening to spread in her face. Said smile was the result of the two red faces that were sitting next to her, failing to hide their continued glances over to Harry's and Neville's place.

"Ah, yes Hannah Abbott. Huh, so you grew up together with two girls. Shame on you Neville-"

"Wha-"

"To think you strung two girls along for all this time. Never making your decision clear, letting both of them keep hoping-"

"What are you-"

"that you will make your feelings clear…"

"Harry! Seriously what are you talking about?"

A sigh came from a place close to the 3 girls overhearing their conversation, yet obscured from Harry's current position.

"Yeah, that's definitely James son alright."

"Tell me about it, Amelia. For a second there it was like I had went back in time."

"Gran! Ms. Bones!" walking, and gesturing for Harry to follow him, Neville walked towards the two voices. Finally having faces to associate with the voices, Harry saw and older woman with grey hair with the tips being the same black as Neville's and a woman that looked around her later 30-ish, though with magicals their appearance was never a good indicator for this type of thing. The woman in question had deep red hair, blue-grey eyes and full lips; though her most easily distinguishable feature were her ridiculously big breasts. Already knowing he got caught looking, Harry made an effort to look away from them, hoping they would be mature enough to let it slide.

"Just like James."

"_Or maybe not."_

"Seriously, it's a good thing he has Lily's eyes, otherwise I'd keep calling him James." agreed, the recently named Amelia, Bones. Both females were smiling the whole time, looking at Harry's reactions.

Thinking it would be better to act like he did back when Tina had first started to tease him, Harry's averted his eyes. Looking at the floor he spoke, purposely stuttering in the beginning.

"U-umm, hello. I'm Harry Potter."

"Hello Harry, nice to meet you. I am Augusta Longbottom. Neville's grandmother. I am glad you managed to bring my little Neville out of his shell. God knows he needed it."

"Graaan!" Neville groaned.

"Hello Harry, nice to meet you. I am Amelia Bones. As I'm sure Neville told you I am Susan's Aunt. Please call me Amelia. And also please get Neville to do it too. I haven't had much luck getting him to call me so all these years." Amelia said still smiling.

"Umm, I'll try. But why are you acting like I'm some kind of ringleader that Neville would follow me?"

Before either Amelia or Augusta had a chance to respond a snort-like sound came from over where the girls were sitting. Looking over the four of them saw an embarrassed Hermione trying to hide her face, which was currently almost as red as Amelia hair, from everyone.

"That should be answer enough, I guess. Go you two, it's your birthday. You should enjoy it with your friends." said Augusta.

"Right! We'll go over." Neville said quickly, grabbing Harry and moving over to where the girls where sitting.

"Umm, hey P…Harry. Happy birthday!" said Susan waveringly while also avoiding looking directly at his eyes. Susan, while sharing her aunt's hair color, hers was a lighter version of red and unlike her aunt's, her eyes where hazel colored;

Harry took a small peak at her thoughts and realized why she was so skittish around him. Considering everything that happened last year he could no longer blame her.

"Hello Harry, Happy birthday! How've you been?" came Hannah's chipper, if a bit forced, voice. Hannah had strawberry blond hair with dark brown, almost black eyes.

"Hey Hannah. Thanks! I've quite well. Thanks for asking. How about you?"

"Can't complain. It's actually been nice and quiet. Just what I needed after last year." Hannah quickly stopped talking, realizing to late that she ended up leading the conversation exactly where she didn't want to.

Knowing what she was thinking Harry ignored her last sentence, turning his attention towards the last occupant of the room. Scanning Hermione's thoughts he knew his assumptions about Hermione realizing he wasn't the one answering the letters was true. Hermione's thoughts were going around in circles.

"_Is Harry an imposter? But why bother coming here then? Is he being controlled? Again why come here? It would be easier if he blow it off then. But if everything's fine then who was righting those letters? I…I just don't know what to do."_

Harry was surprised she hadn't said anything to anyone. He decided to subtly give her a hint.

"Hey Mione, read any good tomes recently?"

"What?" she asked, the abruptness of the question momentarily putting a stop to her doubts.

"You know; for a bit of light reading."

Hermione blinked; once, twice, thrice; then she let out a huff, giving him the exact same look she had given Ron about a year and a half ago. The two kept their starring contest going for a bit, while everyone else was trying to make heads or tails of what they were talking about.

Finally they both broke off their eye contact at the same time, laughing heartily. With Hermione giving Harry a look that was so clear to him that he didn't even need to scan her mind to know what she meant. It was an uncompromising look that basically translated to: _We'll talk later._

Naturally the two adults, having taken note of the whole conversation, had their own questions about the whole exchange. Time passed by rather quickly after that, as it always happens when people have fun. Harry hadn't realized how much he missed being a child until then. Thankfully Hermione, in true Hermione fashion, thought it was a good idea to show everyone here how 12-14 year old muggles play around to bring with her some muggle board games that while lacking the effects of their magical counterparts were still, or in the case of exploding snap, more, fun. In fact the two adults were also interested in the muggle games and joined in. Of course all the niceties ended when Hermione brought out Monopoly. Lines were drawn, promises were broken, add in a little Air cheating with the dice from Harry's part and everything devolved to chaos quite quickly. The expressions on the adults faces when they realized they were beaten at what was essentially negotiations, resource management and strategy by three children (Neville and Harry were the first and second to go) were priceless. Naturally, as such, both birthday boys made sure to capture said expressions on film. Both magical and muggle, just in case.

"_I'm definitely sending this over to Susan. But first…"_

"_This is going to be a hell of a prank. But I need to do this right. Probably ask Gred and Forge for help. But first…"_

""_I am so making copies.""_

**A bit later**

Neville was beyond excited by Harry's gift. The fact that he knew what it was with just a look spoke volumes of his love for Herbology. Harry received a Broomstick Servicing Toolkit from Susan, a Pocket Sneakoscope from Ron, a copy of The Monster Book of Monsters from Hagrid, Harry wasn't sure if he liked what that one implied. From Hermione he also got a book, big surprise there, titled '_Quidditch Teams of the British Isles'_, Hannah gave him a Zonko's Special, a bag that had a bit of everything the shop had ever produced; that particular gift caused a few groans, though they originated from the two adults. Not surprising considering Harry knew how much his father loved a good prank, a bit too much sometimes if Harry was being honest with himself. He received a luxury eagle feather quill with a _Never-ending ink_ enchantment at the tip. While Amelia gave him a book titled _"Charms made simple. A comprehensible guide to your own homemade Charms." _Harry gave a knowing smile there, knowing his mother's prodigious skill in the subject.

It was the next gift that caused the celebrations to end though. It was a long, narrow package which broaden out towards one. Harry could only think of one thing that it could be. Sure enough it was a broom; but not just any kind of broom. It was a freaking Firebolt, the fastest broom in the world, and not meant to reach the shelves until a couple of weeks from now. Suffice to say Harry was stunned, they all were. Having regained himself first Harry reached for the card he saw earlier.

"The first step towards redemption for everything I missed out on."

"That's a weird thing to write in a birthday card." Harry mused, which caused the adults to snap back to reality.

"Harry, who is the Firebolt from?" asked Amelia, already not liking where this was going

"Didn't say. Just something about steps towards redemption and whatnot."

Sharing a look with Augusta, Amelia drew her wand pointing it towards the broom while Augusta did the same towards the card. Speaking softly, Amelia directed her words towards Harry, who had caught the whole thing and was trying to figure out what had them so spooked.

"Harry, please slowly put the broom down and walk away from it."

Frowning Harry answered as he placed the broom down and walked away from it. By that time he had already scan the broom the way Tina had taught him so he knew the only enchantments on it where the ones you'd expect to find in a broom. "Fine, but you two will have to explain everything."

"As much as we would like to have that conversation at a different time, I think it's best we do it now." Augusta agreed, looking over all the children gathered in her home.

Sighing, Amelia nodded. "I suppose you're right. Hiding you under a rock isn't protecting you, it's hoping the issue resolves itself, without doing anything about it."

After packaging the broom and everything that came with it Amelia turned towards Harry and spoke.

"Give me 10 minutes to drop these off at my work, I promise you that as long as there is nothing wrong with them, I'll return them to you in the same condition they are now."

Harry nodded, already impressed with the two adult witches. He honestly expected to have to resort to searching through their memories to find out what had them so spooked. Looking around he noticed his fellow yearmates had come back to reality for a while now, though he suspected Hermione had followed everything that happened, not being half as interested in brooms and Quidditch as Susan or Hannah let alone him or Neville.

Once Amelia returned and sat down at one of the couches so she could look at all the kids at once, she began the tale of Sirius Black.


End file.
